In addition to the recent bill increasing the maximum speed on VA interstates to 70, two other potentially high-impact bills are set to change Virginia motorways.
The first has already passed the Senate, and will enact a ban on holding cellphones while driving. The new law will will penalize drivers who insist on holding the device while the vehicle is in motion, as opposed to utilizing a hands free device. The financial hand slap will go into effect July 1st, and range from $20 for a first offense, to $50 for subsequent violations. This punishment will to a full fledged beating on July 1, 2011, from $100 (1st) to $200 (subsequent).
The second bill seeks to restore a nationwide right, which only Virginia & the District of Columbia still insist upon disregarding. The new legislature moves to strike the current ban on radar/laser detectors, and has already passed the transportation committee, on it’s way to the Senate. [Photo Credits]
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- When the light turns green, you put your foot on the gasoline…
- Why Richmond Sunlight Is So Friggen Cool
- Virginia Senate Passes Bill Banning Teenage Use of Cellphones while Driving
Maybe the fed will provide “stimulus funding” to some companies that can make a hands free device that’s worth buying. Also, maybe they could just provide a cop to ride along with each and every person and write a ticket for absolutely anything people do “wrong.” Got to love a broke state passing laws to make localities a little pocket change…
that would be a good idea, if hands-free devices were any safer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012900053.html
What about applying makeup? What about eating a burger? What about drinking a soda? What about selecting tunes from the ipod? What about changing a CD? What about feeding or tending to the kid in the back seat? Granted, cell phone usage is the most distracting, but we don’t need additional traffic laws, selectively prohibiting some non driving tasks and not others.
WHY DO THEY INFRINGE ON MY RIGHT TO DRIVE DRUNK AT 100 MPH?!?!?!
This. Everyone who’s denigrating the bill apparently hasn’t done their research. However, orchid’s right. Using a hands-free device is just as distracting, but keep in mind that one doesn’t necessarily need to take their eyes off the road if they’re using hands-free and voice recognition. I was doing that with a cheap-ass Samsung back in ‘05. That doesn’t negate the risk, but it does lower it.
There was actually a study conducted in DC that said there has not been a significant decrease (or increase) in the number of accidents since enforcing the cell phone ban. It’s basically a pointless ban because, like you mentioned, there are eleventy other things that distract drivers as much as, if not more than, cell phones.
Sorry, if I read other peoples’ comments I wouldn’t be so redundant.
in my experience, people who talk on a cell phone while operating a death machine drive reaaaally slowly.