Ok you are driving down the road and you are talking to the person in the passenger seat and you are stopped and ticketed for talking on a hands free phone when in fact you are not. Really sounds stupid but could it get to that. This looks as though our lawmakers are trying to take away freedom of speech. Boy if we don't get our you know what together and oust all the current congress and the president we will end up having to get a permit to go p---. Someone on here has said to vote out all the incumbents looks to be right. Again we need to educate the young people of the freedoms we are losing I really don't think they know how it use to be.

I see lots of cops talking on cells while driving. Wonder how that will go over with them? And while they are at it, radio use isn't as distracting?

Originally Posted by DDoug

Ok you are driving down the road and you are talking to the person in the passenger seat and you are stopped and ticketed for talking on a hands free phone when in fact you are not. Really sounds stupid but could it get to that. This looks as though our lawmakers are trying to take away freedom of speech. Boy if we don't get our you know what together and oust all the current congress and the president we will end up having to get a permit to go p---. Someone on here has said to vote out all the incumbents looks to be right. Again we need to educate the young people of the freedoms we are losing I really don't think they know how it use to be.

Tell that to the thousand or more people who have died as a result of distracted drivers.

Originally Posted by Posh 08

I see lots of cops talking on cells while driving. Wonder how that will go over with them? And while they are at it, radio use isn't as distracting?

posh - police used to talk on walkie talkies and/or cb radios - cell phones are just the continuing upgrade in technology.

and radio use IS distracting - especially when the occupant has the volume turned up loud enough to prevent them from hearing warning honks from other drivers or emergency sirens!

the fact of the matter is deaths and accidents on the highway are up due to cell phone use!!!

We can rationalize all kinds of possibilities and confusions but we have had those in existence forever and they should not be used as an example or a justification to allow the increased accidents and deaths attributable to cell phones.

I am all for a method of disabling the phones while inside a car. Gotta make a call? Stop and get out.....like the old days when one had to use the phone.

I am amused by organizations such as MADD, mothers against drunk driving. Because most mothers are not involved in the drinking so they can, justly so, be very righteous above the deaths caused by drunk driving.
What we DO NOT see is anything like MACPD, mothers against cell phone driving. The death rates are about the same in magnitude. Now why is it the mothers are not as inspired? Because THEY do not want to be against anything that will affect them!!! How very hypocritical and inconsistent and inconsiderate....eh?

btk

Originally Posted by njbchbum

posh - police used to talk on walkie talkies and/or cb radios - cell phones are just the continuing upgrade in technology.

and radio use IS distracting - especially when the occupant has the volume turned up loud enough to prevent them from hearing warning honks from other drivers or emergency sirens!

I know NJ. The Sheriff's Office here issues cells to the Deputies and Blackberrys to the Investigators. Cell conversation can't be picked up on scanners like the radio traffic. My point is....... they going to ban LEO from using cells while driving? I'd bet not in Virginia with it's strong Sheriff's Association and powerful Commonwealth Attorney lobby.

Originally Posted by DDoug

Ok you are driving down the road and you are talking to the person in the passenger seat and you are stopped and ticketed for talking on a hands free phone when in fact you are not. Really sounds stupid but could it get to that. This looks as though our lawmakers are trying to take away freedom of speech. Boy if we don't get our you know what together and oust all the current congress and the president we will end up having to get a permit to go p---. Someone on here has said to vote out all the incumbents looks to be right. Again we need to educate the young people of the freedoms we are losing I really don't think they know how it use to be.

doug - first: if the driver has a cell phone and was NOT on a call the cell phone records would show that - ticket beaten; second: lawmakers are not trying to do away with your freedom of speech - freedom of speech refers to the right to speak without being censored for what you have to say - NOT the ability to make a phone call or not! neither of those facts, however, negate the fact that we should Get Rid of Incumbent Politicians.

btk - you are so right about the folks who think that the cell phone law would be a good law BUT that it should apply to someone other than them!!! since this story hit the news yesterday, the interviews on air and in the papers with the stories of personal justification for being exempt from this potential law are hysterical!

Don't know how this would work. Do we tell doctors to not take calls, how about police that have not only a radio but a phone and a laptop in the front seat.
What about businesses that use two way communication to direct their employees to jobs.
I would think that thousands of people trying to get to the side of the road to take a call is going to kill as many people as we have now. The new accidents will be the people rushing to make up time lost by pulling over to the side of the road. Some places, like big urban areas have no place to pull over to take a call. People will find ways around this and if they don't they will die in the crash running a stop sign or light trying to make up the time.

I would think a couple of kids in the back seat are more distracting than a cell phone.
Now I have cussed my share of people who text and have a phone on their ear making it impossible for them to get to their turn signal switch but to make hands free against the law is BS.

It is ammazing how they will be able to get this fast tracked and passed while the real work of running our country goes down the crapper!

THROW THEM OUT. They are the most useles 535 people we have on the planet right now. I hope they don't let this kind of crap coming from NTSB get to a vote.
Maybe they should take a page from Al qaeda and change their name so the might get a better image.

I think the limitations should apply only to TEXTING while driving, at this point. A law against that alone would make more sense.

And, it seems like the technology boom ought to be able to come up with a way for the text composition function to be disabled when the phone is moving faster than walking speed.

I'd like to SEE THE DATA that proves cell phone usage causes accidents and highway deaths.

It all sounds a little too politically correct to me. Studies by the NTSB show highway deaths significantly lower than in 2008 and cell phone usage is not even mentioned in the study (Statistics).

Just saying....show me the data!

Originally Posted by Posh 08

I know NJ. The Sheriff's Office here issues cells to the Deputies and Blackberrys to the Investigators. Cell conversation can't be picked up on scanners like the radio traffic. My point is....... they going to ban LEO from using cells while driving? I'd bet not in Virginia with it's strong Sheriff's Association and powerful Commonwealth Attorney lobby.

posh - my point is why would anyone ban emergency personnel from using a cell phone for business when they have been communicating by one device or another for years? the use of a cell phone for police/emergency communication is totally different from a private citizen calling in to the office for updates or a soccer mom calling to order a pizza for pick-up on the way home from practice or a couple of guys dishing the dirt on the girls they met at the bar the nite before!

do you really think that the police/emergency responders are cruising their beat and using the phone for other than police/emergency business? here in my town the phone records are reviewed every month [or maybe it is every quarter] for just that reason - to insure that the phone is being used for emergency communication and not personal business. as arrogant as some of the officers on our force can be - they are not willing to risk official reprimand from their commanding officer for misuse of official property!

Originally Posted by ilovetv

I think the limitations should apply only to TEXTING while driving, at this point. A law against that alone would make more sense.

And, it seems like the technology boom ought to be able to come up with a way for the text composition function to be disabled when the phone is moving faster than walking speed.

Virginia and 31 other states have the no text while drive law. DC has a no call hand held law. FYI.

Originally Posted by njbchbum

posh - my point is why would anyone ban emergency personnel from using a cell phone for business when they have been communicating by one device or another for years? the use of a cell phone for police/emergency communication is totally different from a private citizen calling in to the office for updates or a soccer mom calling to order a pizza for pick-up on the way home from practice or a couple of guys dishing the dirt on the girls they met at the bar the nite before!

do you really think that the police/emergency responders are cruising their beat and using the phone for other than police/emergency business? here in my town the phone records are reviewed every month [or maybe it is every quarter] for just that reason - to insure that the phone is being used for emergency communication and not personal business. as arrogant as some of the officers on our force can be - they are not willing to risk official reprimand from their commanding officer for misuse of official property!

I never said they were using them for anything other than business. Where you getting that from? I thought I was being clear. Guess not. However, I think if banned for citizens, why not LEO? Dangerous is dangerous.

Originally Posted by Posh 08

Virginia and 31 other states have the no text while drive law. DC has a no call hand held law. FYI.

nj has the ban on cell phone use while driving law as well - it's just too bad that are not enough police to enforce it! and it's too bad the states i drive thru en route to maine and/or florida cannot enforce the law[s] along I95 either!

Originally Posted by Posh 08

I never said they were using them for anything other than business. Where you getting that from? I thought I was being clear. Guess not. However, I think if banned for citizens, why not LEO? Dangerous is dangerous.

sorry for the misinterpretation! i don't think there is cause to ban the use of cell phones for le personnel...dangerous is dangerous - but the common good is better served by their use of the technology than it is by allowing that use by untold numbers of people using it for non-emergency reasons.

the numbers of le personnel who use cell phones will always be smaller than the general public who might have access to the technology.