Sound Politics: Maybe the House should have pulled off the road before sending Gregoire the ban

April 18, 2007

Maybe the House should have pulled off the road before sending Gregoire the ban

AP headline: "House sends Gregoire ban on text messaging while driving"

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 18, 2007 09:32 AM | Email This

Comments

1. A couple of things here. First of all, this is just plain stupid. We already have law against distracted driving. Why do we need more laws piled on top of more laws that do the same thing? Why even waste the time and paper to draft it? This is simply more "feel good" "legislation" (for lack of a better term) crafted so that it looks like they are actually doing things in Olympia. Does this mean that they can pull you over for distracted driving and it's a primary offence or as this as a secondary offense? Or both? So what shapes the decision at the time?

Second, calling this a "secondary offense" is exactly what they said about the seat belt law. Give it a few years and they will start pulling you over for it as a primary. More slow motion socialist control.

Posted by: G Jiggy on April 18, 2007 10:10 AM

2. Stefan--
Very clever.

Personally, I have started to voluntarily shut off my cellphone while driving.
However, I am against some ridiculous costly, unenforceable enforcement ban as it would be just another opportunity for police officers to pull more people over while the real Bad Guys get away with worse stuff.
How many more cops would we have to hire to enforce this ban???
How much would it cost??

I'd rather encourage folks to shut off their phones while driving. Since I have done it, driving is frankly much more enjoyable. Just listen to music. Try it.

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 18, 2007 01:56 PM

3. I actually think this is a great idea. Just shut off the cell phones during the day and while you are driving.

Imagine the tax money this state will lose...

Let's do it for the whole month that this starts, and watch how fast these tax happy, fine happy, demoncraps will feel about that massive loss of their tax revenue!

Posted by: GS on April 18, 2007 03:54 PM

4. Yeah, that'll stop 'em. Just like the speed limit stops speeding.

What's next on the enumerated list of driving behavior bans? Lipstick Application Ban? They could spend an entire legislative session passing driving behavior bills one at a time. That would really make them feel like they accomplished something.

This is what happens when Democrats are elected.

Posted by: Jeff B. on April 18, 2007 05:20 PM

5. Just make new cars, when running, automatically interfere with any cell phone signal trying to originate within the coccoon of the driver's seat.

Problem solved.

Posted by: Easycure on April 19, 2007 05:25 AM