FYI: Starting Friday, August 1st, it will against the law to text while driving in MN. It includes surfing the internet and sending emails. If you are in your car and not parked - DO NOT TEXT! I bet accidents will go down a bit but tickets will go up a lot...
Driving on the highway last week, there was a younger lady in a sebring with her left arm out the window and right arm against the steering wheel and in her right hand was her phone, texting, not paying attention at all...scared the crap out of me.
Please tell me this comes with jail time Please tell me this comes with jail time Please tell me this comes with jail time Please tell me this comes with jail time What? Dammit. (Though with a property damage/injury accident, it can )
:cheers2: It's about time. So many people scare me on a daily basis that are texting while driving. -Steve
It will make things safer for sure but how do they really intend to catch people doing this! I understand that if a cops sees someone looking at thier phone for more than a min or 2 they are probably texting but how do they lan to prove this! What if someone is just looking up a contact in their phone! Good law to add to saftey but also kinda of rediculous to try and enforce. Just my .02
easy... dont have phone in hand whilst driving.. blue tooth or nothing... (I am guilty of all this too)
Cruise control + left leg steering + forearms on 10 and 2 plus both thumbs banging out emails on the Crackberry FTMFWy0! I remember when I entered the workforce in the mid-90s....we had a "group" cell phone for 50 people...a huge brick with its own briefcase battery. Sad, but I'm not sure how anything ever got done then! Now, vapid soccer moms with ADHD wielding huge SUVs are a whole different matter...
Huh? Texting while driving is so obscenely dangerious, it deserves this after your second or third ticket. Also, I have no quota. I'm not at that end of law enforcement (I'm in the court end) (They don't technically have quotas anyhow, though I will amdit that some depts do get a bit snippy if you don't have X tickets, but they don't exactly need new laws to do this.)
yeah, wtf, nm+ has never displayed quota quality, nor insinuiated that he is a police officer. I feel like he does if that means anything. I've texted while driving, and realized that it diverted my attention too long. If i can realize that after about 30 seconds on 35W driving home from work, it's not too much to expect the same out of my neighbors :roll:
I'll admit to doing it every now and again, as a poor surrogate for talking to someone on a phone while out in the sticks 50mi. from anyone and anything but trees and deer. Can't beat road noise in a panel van. City limits, or close to? Won't touch the thing, for any reason. Too much else to worry about, even during the wee hours. Guess I'll just have to keep looking for something else to keep me awake on the road at night.
Just stick some velcro on a PSP, slap it on your trim next to the upper cup holder, and watch a movie instead...safety first!
I had a friend drive me to the airport last time I went up there for a couple week's vacation. It was 7am on a Saturday and he was texting on his Pearl while driving on the freeway. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I mean I watched as he looked down at his phone and not an eye on the road for several long seconds. I had to call out the gawkers block due to someone being pulled over otherwise I'm pretty sure he would have a) hit the car ahead of us, or b) pulled onto the shoulder and hit the cruiser. At that point I was pissed and told him to get the F off the phone until after he dropped me off. Obviously I don't text while driving. I don't like it when other people text while driving because it puts me in danger while sharing the roads with them. But most of all I don't like it when people endanger my life when I am a passenger in their car! Maybe it's my whole pilot mentality where they drill into you over and over that you are responsible for the safety of your passengers or maybe it's just because I'm not an arrogant a-hole.
Oh I totally agree, I was just giving you a hard time edit: I never said he was a police officer, although the Prosecutors have to make the court $$ some how...no?
I suppose next texting while driving under the influence will be illegal... The man is keeping us down. :laugh: I'm all for this - but admit that I have texted while driving... However, I do use a bluetooth when I'm in the car and am doing my best to get the wife to do the same.
What about getting directions from google? You are not texting but you're reading the texts that come in with the step by step directions. Or using Google maps live... Okay so I can't use my cell phone to look at Google maps, but I could have a laptop? Meh, I understand it but it's too vague.
We don't need to make the court money, but make us money (courts and stiff also ant to make, money, as that's thier business). Here's a tip, the profits from tickets just ain't that much. The current fee is $81 all of which goes to Mr. Pawlenty. That means for the typical $122 ticket, there's $41 to go to us than the court. Even an arriagnment costs more than $41. You gotta pay the Judge, the prosecutor, the clerks, the backroom staff, etc. No one's getting rich off traffic fines. Where some cities make money is through CFDs and Stays of Adjudications (the stuff that keeps it off your record). Depending on the county, 50-100% of that "fee" goes to the city. If you want to stop making traffic tickets a profit center, you're going to have to accept that speed go on your record. I would warn that money's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Pawlenty thinks the courts are just another govt agency with fat to be trimmed. This is not true, and already his cuts (notibly in the Public Defenders office) will cause some offenders to go free before trial. Both prosecutor and PDs offices run very lean, leaner than any reasonbly profitable law firm, and the courts don't really have much give either. These cuts if they go much further, combined with higher fees, are going to force prosecutors officers to act more like for-profit law firms, focusing on cases where the profit (read fine/fee) potential is greatest rather than where the social need is greatest. There are many many things the free market does better than government, criminal law isn't one of them (I'd actually be tempted to include the PDs office in this). Most of what i do is serious traffic and other crimes anyhow. If you see me after next Monday (last day of petty stuff for me), you've commited at least a misdeamnor. Driving after (suspension/revocation/cancellation), DWI, Reckless/Careless, accidents, Assault 4/5, Domestics, Theft, etc. Profits not a prime (or any) modivation for us.
Interesting, I've always wondered where the court fees went. Thanks for sharing that. So now that you will be dealing with misdemeanors and above, is that considered a promotion in your line of work? I'm just wondering since those types of crimes have more of a hefty fee associated with them. I sure hope that we never get to meet during your work hours
Eh, its more of a lateral move, as I'm stopping doing petty court trials (in Coon Rapids) and just doing the misdemeanor arraignments (in St Paul) I've been doing all along. I'm still a student attorney, so there's no promotions yet Court trials can be fun. I have a case on monday where a guys claims his new A4 can't do 48 mph (yes, no typo: forty-eight). I'm thinking of taking this to MNaudi if he wins.
Honestly I sort of hope he wins: Big sign at Firestone "Anoka County District Court: Audi A4s aren't capable of driving 48mph." Handlinga ticket advice: If you blatantly lie, you're getting screwed. The cop won't give you a break The Prosecutor won't keep it off your record The judge won't believe even true things you say.
Wait, what? Is he saying he was in a certain gear and that gear doesn't go 48? BC I've used that one before... :laugh: Anyway, about time a law like this is passed... I see people texting with their right hand and a cigarette in their left hand (hanging out the window) everyday. Best was watching someone talking on the phone with cigarette in mouth, steering and shifting with their right hand (and presumably knees)... that scared the hell out of me.
As far as I can tell, he's arguing his car can't do 48. Anyhow, knowing audi's gearing, 1st tops out around 30, 2nd tops out at 60+, so there's no gearing argument. I can't wait to ask him if he has the turbo or the v6.
Fun fact if your first name has a 'y' in it that isn't at the beginning or the end (Brandyn for example) or an 'i' at the end, you odds of commiting a crime seem to go up.
I'm a student attorney, whcih means I'm a law student by day, and a prosecutor by, well, thats during the day too. Dunno who Fred Bruno is. Don't really get to know non-PD defense attorneys that well, as they're different ones every day.
he's one of the top criminal defense attorney's in the state last time i checked he was ranked 2nd was just wondering because he's my fiance's father
nah typically child molester's and gang leader cases and such he really has good results when it comes to child molesters though..he's one of the best liars i know :S hes a real scumbag lmao
It's been shown by a lot of studies that talking on a hands-free phone is just as distracting as using a hand held one. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030129080944.htm
Yup. The only time one should be using a cell phone while driving: 911 calls. Empty rural freeways. Just no danger on I-80 in Nebraska Seriously, STFU and drive or pull over and call.
Can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make driving with a *************ing stupid little yap dog on your lap illegal too!?
I suspect there's something that already makes that technically illegal, but it's never used. (Also, if it's smaller than a cat, it's not a dog)
That's an issue even if you're talking with people riding in the car as well. Heck even the radio could be distracting. The difference is that you're not holding the radio or your friend up to your ear with one hand while driving with the other. Having both hands free can make a big difference.
