In July of this year California made it Illegal to drive and talk on a phone at the same time. Although, under the law you could still use a Bluetooth headset to talk on your phone. Now California along with 7 other states as well as Washington D.C. are making it illegal to text and drive at the same time.
Starting in January, California drivers may not send, write or read messages on electronic devices. Schwarzenegger signed legislation Wednesday that imposes a $20 fine for a first offense of texting while driving and a $50 fine for any subsequent violation. It seems to me that such a punishment isn’t even worth the hassle of pulling the offending motorist over and dealing with the problem.
It truly seems like more of a fundraiser to me than it does actually trying to keep the roads safer. It’s not like when someone is texting they hold their phone out of their window for anyone to see, I would venture to guess that this legislative movement will have very little impact on how people drive in all of the states involved. It is nice to see that government bodies are looking at things like this because I think most people agree that texting whilst driving isn’t the best of ideas, but I as well as most people am quite unsure if it will actually make the roads a safer place to drive.
More details on this story can be found via the LA Times
