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New Jersey Passes a No-hands Cellphone law.

I'm from NJ and I quit riding my motorcycle because of cellphones.

Every time I was out riding I'd have a close call with some moron with a phone jammed in their ear. It was uncanny.

I wish they would make it a 'primary' offense instead of a secondary. The law has no teeth now as a secondary, it's just a way to harass kids. Primary means they can see you using the phone and pull you over because of that. Make it a primary and make the fine $500 first offense, doubling each consecutive offense. $1k, $2k, $4k, $8k etc. That way it wouldn't just affect the working folks like most laws do.

It would solve another issue too....jobs expecting people to instantly pick up a cellphone call no matter what. I refuse to talk on my cellphone in the car...pisses people off at work all the time too.
 
W5LZ said:
QRN,
The problem with that solution (dropping the phone in the seat) is that sometimes the realization that you need to do that is a bit too late to be a solution. Or maybe I should have said a 'viable' solution?
- 'Doc
Click to expand...

Fair enough Doc but how much more time does it take to do that then drop a CB or any other 2-way microphone into the seat. At least with a phone you can drop it and holler "HOLD ON !" and they will hear you. With a radio microphone you either break off the conversation without warning or take even longer to say "hold on" while you still have to hold the microphone before releasing the PTT button and dropping it.There have been a few times I have done just that,dropped the phone into the seat beside me and yelled loud enough for them to hear me "Hold on a minute! Cant't talk!".Another thing to consider in my case is that we simply do not have the traffic most of you guys do.The whole province of Nova Scotia only has a population of 925,000 people spread out over 21,350 square miles.
 
again I say , cb isn't the issue here , cell phones are. I will defend my cb as IM starting to read others defending there cell phones , as far as IM concerned , one has nothing to do with the other. It's just a cell phone users mind set to a cb radio operators mind set , most cell phones are for personal purposes , my cb radio is not , it's for enjoyment and adjatation from time to time. You can defend your cell phones all you want , but comparing them to cb is just a wah wah wah cry baby BS !! If I can't have my cell phone you can't have your cb !! wah wah wah , When it comes to a cell phones , IM just not that important !! it ,what ever it may be ? can wait ........just like it did some 80 freak'in years before that. I notice anymore that the cry babies of this world usually get there ways , so go ahead and restrict my cb while your at it , just like cigarettes , tax them some more along with gasoline and everything else. You been to the grocery store lately ? it's just one thing after another . You want my cb ? You can have the damned thing already !! anything to shut up the cry baby moaning and groaning already. Wow !! next thing I'll be hearing is to chill out .....go figure. :?
 
:roll: I wasn't comparing cell phones to CB anymore than I was to ham radio,CD players,eating while driving, reading the newspaper while driving etc. The point I was trying to make is that the law should apply to ALL forms of distraction especially when it leads to a moving violation.Driving is supposed to #1 priority for the driver,not fumbling around looking for a CD that was dropped beneath the seat or stuffing a Big Mac and fries down your throat.A survey done a while ago,and I wish I could remember where I saw it but you'll just have to trust me on this, said that approximately 80% of the people on the road have a cell phone. Compare that to the number that have CB or ham radios and how the numbers stack up. Pretty heavy against the cell phone users due to sheer numbers of them out there.Of course they are going to have more problems.I agree that the average cell phone user is not as likely to be able to drive and converse as someone that has been using a 2-way radio for years.There is something about that duplex thing as well as the fact that most 2-way radio users have a differant mindset.Again, I am not saying punish everyone,just the ones that cause problems regardless of what they were doing when it happened.

BTW ever get your radio microphone cord wrapped around your steering wheel? It's a bitch. Been there. Done that. :LOL: ;)
 
Not taking sides here, but two-way radio has NEVER caused the problems duplex cellphone has. I can't recall when a TWO-WAY user EVER ran me out of the road, and I think it is simply because the cellphone is a continuous, self-absorbing stream of info the brain can't process AND drive a car at the same time. I don't think CB radios or ham radios should even figure into this because I believe the instances of problems with their use is miniscule. It also goes to the sheer numbers of cellphone users as well.

Now, me? I don't even HAVE a cellphone. Don't want it, don't need it! It seems that these days, particularly with young girls, their cars won't even START unless they've got a dadburned cellphone stuck in their ear first! :D Just what do they have to TALK about 24/7 anyway? :p

73

CWM
 
I can't say that I don't agree with what you say at all Jerry. It is all true. I would just like to see that the guy that is stuffing his face or reading the paper be held just as accountable as the guy talking on the phone.That's all.I'm not saying that people should be ticketed just for yaking on the radio, but if while yaking on the radio,eating, reading etc., they cause an accident or a near miss then they should be held accountable.Call it DWD if you will. That's Driving While Distracted.What if the guy I mentioned above that left the road while looking for a lost CD had hit someone walking along the road? Should it just be looked at as a simple accident and be dismissed as such?
 
This is not the "fault" of the device, (cell phone, CB, car video, etc.) but rather, the fault of the clueless, inconciderate and idiotic people on the roadways.

What sort of moron would try to type a text message on a small cell phone while traveling along at 40-60 mph??? One that does not understand the consequences for his/her actions.

As a police officer, I would stop people and give them warnings for all the stupid stuff I saw, such as failing to yield when merging onto a highway (people think that the traffic traveling along at 65 mph had to yield to them as they got on at the onramp!), or all the mothers out there in their minivans, with the kids in carseats in the back. Do you care to guess how many hundreds of times I would stop a mom, because she spent more time looking towards the backseat, rather than out the windshield??? How about a law that says you can't feed your child while you are driving? And honest to God, I have stopped people for reading the newspaper while they are driving, or reading a paperback novel! This is not while they are sitting in traffic, this is while they are making turns, traveling along at speed, etc.

I can tell you with certainty, that if we could teach our children about the real dangers of driving, they would heed the warning.
But you can't show a child the horrific and tragic reality of careless vehicle operation. Dead people laying on the roadway, with their intestines hanging out of their body, or their faces smashed inwards with their brains pushed out of their skulls, are too 'graphic' to show to our sensitive children. So instead, they don't know the horror of it until they cause the death of someone due to their own stupidity.

10 years ago, I stood on a Pennsylvania state highway, surrounded by 7 dead bodies, the result of recklessness.
I spent 18 hours on that scene, and the smell of dead people gets pretty bad after the first few hours. The image of dead children, with their eyes still open, as if staring at you, is one that will stick with me for the rest of my life. The old lady, who's head was dragged some 100+ feet along the roadway, after it went through the side window when her vehicle flipped over, or the look on the young woman's face, who died instantly when the reckless operator's car landed (yes, it was airborn) on the hood of her car as she traveled along at 60 mph, are images that will keep you from doing stupid things behind the wheel. But, our society is too "sensitive" for that sort of thing. It's just better to call in the cops, fire and ambulance folks, to clean up the mess and make everything good again.


All this crap is just part of the rise & fall of this Roman Empire in which we live. Get used to it. We brought it on ourselves.
 
CDX8412 said:
This is not the "fault" of the device, (cell phone, CB, car video, etc.) but rather, the fault of the clueless, inconciderate and idiotic people on the roadways.

What sort of moron would try to type a text message on a small cell phone while traveling along at 40-60 mph??? One that does not understand the consequences for his/her actions.

As a police officer, I would stop people and give them warnings for all the stupid stuff I saw, such as failing to yield when merging onto a highway (people think that the traffic traveling along at 65 mph had to yield to them as they got on at the onramp!), or all the mothers out there in their minivans, with the kids in carseats in the back. Do you care to guess how many hundreds of times I would stop a mom, because she spent more time looking towards the backseat, rather than out the windshield??? How about a law that says you can't feed your child while you are driving? And honest to God, I have stopped people for reading the newspaper while they are driving, or reading a paperback novel! This is not while they are sitting in traffic, this is while they are making turns, traveling along at speed, etc.

I can tell you with certainty, that if we could teach our children about the real dangers of driving, they would heed the warning.
But you can't show a child the horrific and tragic reality of careless vehicle operation. Dead people laying on the roadway, with their intestines hanging out of their body, or their faces smashed inwards with their brains pushed out of their skulls, are too 'graphic' to show to our sensitive children. So instead, they don't know the horror of it until they cause the death of someone due to their own stupidity.

10 years ago, I stood on a Pennsylvania state highway, surrounded by 7 dead bodies, the result of recklessness.
I spent 18 hours on that scene, and the smell of dead people gets pretty bad after the first few hours. The image of dead children, with their eyes still open, as if staring at you, is one that will stick with me for the rest of my life. The old lady, who's head was dragged some 100+ feet along the roadway, after it went through the side window when her vehicle flipped over, or the look on the young woman's face, who died instantly when the reckless operator's car landed (yes, it was airborn) on the hood of her car as she traveled along at 60 mph, are images that will keep you from doing stupid things behind the wheel. But, our society is too "sensitive" for that sort of thing. It's just better to call in the cops, fire and ambulance folks, to clean up the mess and make everything good again.


All this crap is just part of the rise & fall of this Roman Empire in which we live. Get used to it. We brought it on ourselves.
Click to expand...

Nicly put, I am big on safe driving. I am in central Texas the traffic is heavy here and people die every day on the road. It's weird though, it's like we the people just accept it as normal. So many lifes could be saved if we put down the cell phones, slowed down a little, stopped running red lights, stopped passing on the right, etc.
 
whatever happened to "AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE" ? Free my ass!!!!! I thought the new law about not smoking while you had your children in YOUR car was BS, they come out with one that you cant talk on CB? WTF?? I can understand the cell phone thing cause many o times I have wanted to drag people outta their cars fer doin somethin stupid on their cell phone :D I think I am gonna move to RUSSIA!, Hell they have more "FREEDOM" than we do!!![/b]
 
That law will get rewritten because it excludes too many things from use. Emergency vehicles of course would already be exemt by the same law that gives them the right to speed and blow a red light etc. but too many business rely on 2-way radios for it not to be rewritten.
 
QRN,
I can't say for Canada, but in the USA there are no laws which give emergency vehicles exemption from speeding or stopping at normal traffic signals. Flashing red/blue lights and a siren give no "rights" to anyone, they are only to let people know that there are greater needs than theirs at some particular time, and that they ought'a be aware that something unusual is happening and to make allowances for it. Those lights and sirens do not provide exceptions to law (spent too many years sitting under those dam things to not know that). They DO provide ~notice~ that there is/will/should be an exception to the typical "rules of the road" thingys in a particular circumstance. I've never seen it written into a law, but there ARE exceptions to ANY law under genuine emergency situations. (Even that 4 watt rule with CB radios, imagine that!:))
- 'Doc
 

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