Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has made the Land of Lincoln's highways extremely safer this week by signing into law two bills. One bans texting while driving, the other bans using a cell phone while driving in a construction zone or school zone. Do we have enough cops, judges or jail space to accomodate all these criminals? The Hound doesn't think so.
Matter of fact, The Hound is LOL that the governor thinks a swipe of the pen will change what has become common place not only here but the rest of the nation. It's obvious police will tag on the no texting or no cell phone use charge if a person is involved in an accident, but seldom do people not wearing seat belts get ticketed. So how are they going to track down these miscreants?
The Hound agrees that texting while driving is dangerous. So is reading, watching videos, reading a GPS, painting one's nails when behind the wheel. Those that do it just make the term "weakened gene pool" the more relevant. Unfortunately, when they are involved in wrecks caused by texting or talking on the cell, they hurt others. One driving study maintains mobile phone distractions can increase the risk of crashes 23 times.
Fourteen other states have partial or complete bans on text messaging and cell phone usage while driving. The frequency of arrests is underwhelming. Chicago has had a law banning the use of cell phones while driving. That has worked quite well --- not. Poor cops, they get stuck with everyone of society's dirty details.
The Hound hopes Gov. Quinn isn't using these bills as the linchpin of his campaign to get elected governor next year. Not exactly stuff legacies are made.
While the author makes good points and we are well aware of the revenue enhancement componenent to increased motor vehicle violation fines, I have to wonder if it is worth it to consider any future legislation or regulations using the author's logic.
There was a time when I would have thought that Wisconsin would never go smoke free. We in Illinois are still not sure who enforces the '15 feet from the door smoking ban' aspect of the law.
Yet, brave souls in Wisconsin did what was right.
Clearly, No Child Left Behind, the United Nations Charter, and the Medicare Reform Act were not perfect as written. Clearly, they were not unanimously accepted and heralded. Despite this, there were those who wanted to start somewhere. There are those who recognize that Rome wasn't built in a day and that bringing greater awareness to a topic -may- change behavior.
While enforcement of hands-free cell-phone laws may be less than anticipated, if this enforcement was significant, those in the media would be complaining about efforts at ticket quotas and padding budgets. (You see, its not about who is serving the people, it is the perpetuation of the story that matters.) Also, we cannot measure behavior change based on tickets written for recently banned (and unsafe) behavior. We can identify trend over years and decades at which point it is too late to act.
THE HOUND SAYS: Cops already have more than enough to do than enforce feel-good legislation that somebody will point to when they run for re-election. Next up: Chewing gum while driving will be a moving violation. They can't even enforce noise ordinances which are a bigger pain to the populace than TWD, which, The Hound maintains is one of the stupidest ways of communicating. Bring back CB radios, good buddy!
LMAO
FYI, they'll track down the miscreants by searching the vehicle for a cellphone, based on the "suspicion of driving while otherwise occupied." Once they find/seize the phone, they'll see if the driver had any phone or text activity within a "reasonable" amount of time prior to the accident.
If they want to, they'll get you, one way or another.
CUL8R
THE HOUND SEZ: That's a good scenario, Irene. And there must be dozens of lawyers ready to take the first case and prove, once again, that Illinois lawmakers are puddin' heads.