As a race car driver I know a fair amount about auto safety and believe it or not we do everything possible to be safe when we race. We have specially designed safety features in our cars, we wear protective gear, helmets and use special restraints. We rarely have any serious injuries in our races because of this attention to safety and properly trained drivers.
Many states have past laws restricting the use of cell phones in cars. For the most part I applaud these laws. At 60 mph a car can cover 300 feet in just over 3 seconds. That is a football field in 3.4 seconds. So sending a text or trying to dial a 16 digit number could cause a driver to be totally distracted for more than 3 seconds. In that time they could do a lot of damage with a 4000lbs car. So I like the ban on texting and love the laws requiring hands free devices for talking on the phone.
Most car manufacturers have responded and are adding more and more hands free or voice activated systems to their cars. Bluetooth is just about available on nearly all US cars. Actually some of the biggest automotive competition is in the area of on-board technology. Ford has My Sync, Chevy has On Star, Ram has UConnect and on and on. I love all this tech advance as it really helps safety and efficiency.
All that said here is a very interesting story that actually started in my home town of Fresno, California. The story is gaining national notoriety and was just written up in Time magazine this week. Here is the story:
A Fresno man was driving in his car on a Fresno highway (US 41) one evening. He had programmed an address into his IPhone and was following the directions. Traffic came to a stop on the highway due to congestion. The man held his phone and looked down at it to see how far he was from his destination. As he did there was a tap on his window (startling him). It was a motorcycle cop who pulled up beside him in stopped traffic and saw that his phone was illuminated. He made the man pull over and wrote him a ticket for talking on his phone while driving ($160 fine). The man told the officer he was not talking on his phone but just following the map. The officer did not care and cited him anyway.
The Fresno man challenged the ticket in court bringing phone records in that proved he was not on his phone at the time of the traffic citation. The judge heard the case and still fined the man. The man appealed the case to a California review court (a three judge panel). Despite the evidence the judges upheld the traffic court ruling and the fine. At first it was believed that the ruling was a local quirk and did not happen anywhere else but since the story made the press many other similar cases have now been discovered. So watch out in your home town.
The argument the man made was that he was using his phone as a map and was not talking or texting on it. The arresting officer testified that he did not see the man talking or texting on the phone when he pulled up beside him. The man actually brought a typical fold able state map with him to court to show the judge that the map presented a greater danger to his driving than reading a similar map on his phone. Alas the courts did not agree.
Interestingly the law when written was specifically targeted at talking on the phone while driving - causing a big distraction particularly when dialing and placing calls. It was later amended to add texting as this too presents a big distraction to a driver. It has never addressed reading a map on your phone and has no specific language as such.
If you have a navigation system in your car it is completely legal to use that map while driving but the phone is not. Even though the two maps are very likely the same and viewing either presents the same level of distraction.
I think this is a revenue issue and a new way for our nanny states to try collect more fines and control us even more. Look I am against programming any device while driving - nav system, phone or IPad. I am also against folding and unfolding maps while driving too. However, assuming you program these devices prior to driving, reading the maps on them is no more a distraction than drinking a soda. If we are going to ticket for this kind of nonsense we better start taking radios and CD's out of cars. We also better start arresting women who put on makeup in their cars (this one actually scares me more than anything else on the road). And if we do that then we better outlaw drinking or eating in a car as well.
Where do we stop this nonsense? This ruling is just judges legislating from the bench. The law was never intended to address maps on phones and if they think that presents a serious risk to driver then amend the law accordingly before you fine people.
I suggest we leave the phone laws as as they are and enforce them for what they should be. Actually I think drivers need to be smarter and take caution when using anything in an auto that can distract them from the road. We need to train our drivers better, particularly our young driver. Teach folks safety, how to handle an emergency and how to park.
I am convinced that the cop that ticketed this unfortunate man would never have done so had it not been that he was "white lining" between cars and saw the glow of the phone in the man's car. If the phone had been face down the cop would have rode right by.
To illustrate this over zealous nature by some officers here is my story. A few months ago I was driving in my Range Rover with my wife and a guest in the back seat. We came to a stop light and I noticed a police car pulling up behind me. As the light turned green my ear itched so I raised my hand and scratched it. As we made a left turn unto the next street the cop followed. Very soon after he lit me up and I pulled over. I was not speeding as I had just left the stop light and I was aware he was behind me.
He came to the window and asked if I knew why he was pulling me over. I said no. He told me because I was talking on my phone. I told him that I was not and my wife and the passenger both confirmed that. I then took out my phone and showed him the call log to prove I was right. He said he saw my hand to my ear and thought I was on the phone. I explained I was itching my ear and he seemed deflated. He still took my license and registrations and walked around the car. He came back and told me he was issuing a "fix it" ticket for my front license plate that was not properly secured to the vehicle. Amazing but true.
So the moral of these stories is - stay off your phone in the car, use the nav system in your car if you have one, pull over if you are lost and whatever you don't scratch your ear while driving.
Till next time keep the rubber on the road.
Many states have past laws restricting the use of cell phones in cars. For the most part I applaud these laws. At 60 mph a car can cover 300 feet in just over 3 seconds. That is a football field in 3.4 seconds. So sending a text or trying to dial a 16 digit number could cause a driver to be totally distracted for more than 3 seconds. In that time they could do a lot of damage with a 4000lbs car. So I like the ban on texting and love the laws requiring hands free devices for talking on the phone.
Most car manufacturers have responded and are adding more and more hands free or voice activated systems to their cars. Bluetooth is just about available on nearly all US cars. Actually some of the biggest automotive competition is in the area of on-board technology. Ford has My Sync, Chevy has On Star, Ram has UConnect and on and on. I love all this tech advance as it really helps safety and efficiency.
All that said here is a very interesting story that actually started in my home town of Fresno, California. The story is gaining national notoriety and was just written up in Time magazine this week. Here is the story:
A Fresno man was driving in his car on a Fresno highway (US 41) one evening. He had programmed an address into his IPhone and was following the directions. Traffic came to a stop on the highway due to congestion. The man held his phone and looked down at it to see how far he was from his destination. As he did there was a tap on his window (startling him). It was a motorcycle cop who pulled up beside him in stopped traffic and saw that his phone was illuminated. He made the man pull over and wrote him a ticket for talking on his phone while driving ($160 fine). The man told the officer he was not talking on his phone but just following the map. The officer did not care and cited him anyway.
The Fresno man challenged the ticket in court bringing phone records in that proved he was not on his phone at the time of the traffic citation. The judge heard the case and still fined the man. The man appealed the case to a California review court (a three judge panel). Despite the evidence the judges upheld the traffic court ruling and the fine. At first it was believed that the ruling was a local quirk and did not happen anywhere else but since the story made the press many other similar cases have now been discovered. So watch out in your home town.
The argument the man made was that he was using his phone as a map and was not talking or texting on it. The arresting officer testified that he did not see the man talking or texting on the phone when he pulled up beside him. The man actually brought a typical fold able state map with him to court to show the judge that the map presented a greater danger to his driving than reading a similar map on his phone. Alas the courts did not agree.
Interestingly the law when written was specifically targeted at talking on the phone while driving - causing a big distraction particularly when dialing and placing calls. It was later amended to add texting as this too presents a big distraction to a driver. It has never addressed reading a map on your phone and has no specific language as such.
If you have a navigation system in your car it is completely legal to use that map while driving but the phone is not. Even though the two maps are very likely the same and viewing either presents the same level of distraction.
I think this is a revenue issue and a new way for our nanny states to try collect more fines and control us even more. Look I am against programming any device while driving - nav system, phone or IPad. I am also against folding and unfolding maps while driving too. However, assuming you program these devices prior to driving, reading the maps on them is no more a distraction than drinking a soda. If we are going to ticket for this kind of nonsense we better start taking radios and CD's out of cars. We also better start arresting women who put on makeup in their cars (this one actually scares me more than anything else on the road). And if we do that then we better outlaw drinking or eating in a car as well.
Where do we stop this nonsense? This ruling is just judges legislating from the bench. The law was never intended to address maps on phones and if they think that presents a serious risk to driver then amend the law accordingly before you fine people.
I suggest we leave the phone laws as as they are and enforce them for what they should be. Actually I think drivers need to be smarter and take caution when using anything in an auto that can distract them from the road. We need to train our drivers better, particularly our young driver. Teach folks safety, how to handle an emergency and how to park.
I am convinced that the cop that ticketed this unfortunate man would never have done so had it not been that he was "white lining" between cars and saw the glow of the phone in the man's car. If the phone had been face down the cop would have rode right by.
To illustrate this over zealous nature by some officers here is my story. A few months ago I was driving in my Range Rover with my wife and a guest in the back seat. We came to a stop light and I noticed a police car pulling up behind me. As the light turned green my ear itched so I raised my hand and scratched it. As we made a left turn unto the next street the cop followed. Very soon after he lit me up and I pulled over. I was not speeding as I had just left the stop light and I was aware he was behind me.
He came to the window and asked if I knew why he was pulling me over. I said no. He told me because I was talking on my phone. I told him that I was not and my wife and the passenger both confirmed that. I then took out my phone and showed him the call log to prove I was right. He said he saw my hand to my ear and thought I was on the phone. I explained I was itching my ear and he seemed deflated. He still took my license and registrations and walked around the car. He came back and told me he was issuing a "fix it" ticket for my front license plate that was not properly secured to the vehicle. Amazing but true.
So the moral of these stories is - stay off your phone in the car, use the nav system in your car if you have one, pull over if you are lost and whatever you don't scratch your ear while driving.
Till next time keep the rubber on the road.