NewsDude
07-29-2008, 04:00 PM
It's been nearly a month, long enough to see how California's new ban on using handheld cell phones while driving is doing.
Statewide, the CHP said that as of Thursday it had issued 5,019 tickets to drivers who swore on a stack of Bibles that they forgot the law went into effect July 1.
They can remember a nail appointment or a tee time, but they can't remember there's a new law about that thing attached to their head like a third ear 20 hours a day.
An additional 48 tickets by the CHP have been issued statewide to drivers under 18 who are not supposed to be using any cell phone while driving. Yeah, good luck on that one.
"Most of the drivers we're ticketing are telling us that their phone rang and they picked it up instinctively -- forgetting they shouldn't be holding it while driving," said CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader.
I asked her how that excuse was working.
It isn't, she said.
"They all got tickets because we put on a big campaign well before the law went into effect, warning everyone."
So, tough love, people. Use it and lose it -- $76 for a first offense, $190 for the second. Don't even try starting to cry or whine that you're on your way to your kid's school because he's got a tummy ache.
Won't work. You're all going down, the CHP says.
I asked Clader how drivers in the obnoxious cell-phone capital of the world -- Los Angeles -- were doing. I figure we're good for at least 2,000 of those tickets, easy.
Not quite. In CHP's Southern Division, which includes Los Angeles, 1,550 tickets have been issued. That doesn't count tickets issued by local police departments.
"You guys are leading the state," Clader said. "San Francisco's second."
Finally, something we can beat San Francisco at: Cell-phone tickets.
To test...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60990)
Statewide, the CHP said that as of Thursday it had issued 5,019 tickets to drivers who swore on a stack of Bibles that they forgot the law went into effect July 1.
They can remember a nail appointment or a tee time, but they can't remember there's a new law about that thing attached to their head like a third ear 20 hours a day.
An additional 48 tickets by the CHP have been issued statewide to drivers under 18 who are not supposed to be using any cell phone while driving. Yeah, good luck on that one.
"Most of the drivers we're ticketing are telling us that their phone rang and they picked it up instinctively -- forgetting they shouldn't be holding it while driving," said CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader.
I asked her how that excuse was working.
It isn't, she said.
"They all got tickets because we put on a big campaign well before the law went into effect, warning everyone."
So, tough love, people. Use it and lose it -- $76 for a first offense, $190 for the second. Don't even try starting to cry or whine that you're on your way to your kid's school because he's got a tummy ache.
Won't work. You're all going down, the CHP says.
I asked Clader how drivers in the obnoxious cell-phone capital of the world -- Los Angeles -- were doing. I figure we're good for at least 2,000 of those tickets, easy.
Not quite. In CHP's Southern Division, which includes Los Angeles, 1,550 tickets have been issued. That doesn't count tickets issued by local police departments.
"You guys are leading the state," Clader said. "San Francisco's second."
Finally, something we can beat San Francisco at: Cell-phone tickets.
To test...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60990)