What?!? Driver fined $250 for putting on lip balm

Cell phone while driving, now whys that?

Thanks for the article. I'll keep this in mind next time I'm in Vegas.

Could she be looking in the (visor/vanity or rearview) mirror while applying the lip balm? The article doesn't mention it. That is distracted driving.

...before putting on the paint. On wait, she wasn't putting on the paint, just a clear coat. My bad! If she was swerving or committing a lane violation, she should be getting a citation. You have to pay attention to the road and what's happening in front of you.

In retrospect I'm glad never got stopped, applying lip balm is mild compare to the stupid things I did in my youth, one ride in particular between Philly and Allentown PA comes to mind and before you jump to conclusions NO she was not applying lip balm...

She must have been leaning forward or sideways to see into a mirror for the cop to even notice. Maybe she even had the visor down so she could see into the mirror on the visor.
Personally I have seen women applying mascara going down the road and wished I was a cop. They clearly were distracted drivers.
Next, they will be applying something while texting. Got to draw the line somewhere.

Apparently this Nevada officer was in danger of not meeting his monthly ticket quota.

This "distracted driver" thing is getting a little (a lot!) out of hand.

Out of hand indeed.

This is great

This is just getting crazy..

I have seen women curling their hair, blow drying their hair, applying makeup and more.

Best one ever was the guy that smashed into my car as "...he dropped his cigarette and was trying to find it on the floor".

More than $8,000 in damages.

Maybe women are better multi-taskers.

some people should have never been issued a drivers license, they cant pay attention to the road and cant do two things at the same time. how many people have you seen changing the radio station and they just have to look at the knob or button to change it or the numbers on the screen. I thought I was following a drunk driver one time they had clipped a curb twice as I passed her I saw a baby in the back seat and she was looking in the glove box for something left hand on the wheel right hand clean across the car her head below her field of vision I blew my horn at her and she flipped me off !! what is so important that people just cant pull over do what they have to do then get back on the road !

I, for one, am glad they are starting to ticket idiots who do multiple things while driving. I see them all the time. Putting on makeup, digging in purses, fiddling with coffee cups, messing with the radio...

I'm talking about people who are looking at "what they are doing" rather than looking "where they are driving". Just freaking drive. I come close to getting hit maybe 4 or 5 times a week at one off ramp. People are supposed to be paying attention to traffic when they merge but they are doing other things instead.

Distracted drivers deserve to get tickets... Tired of watching people swerve and not paying attention while texting or talking on cellphones while driving....

I am all for tickets for Distracted Driving. However if someone is driving their car straight down the proper lane, at the proper speed and not hitting anyone, isn't that de-facto Not Distracted ?

Not every person has the same motor and attention skills. So ticket the person who is demonstrably operating poorly, and don't detain the rest, even if they are doing something you don't want them to be, or that you wouldn't do yourself.

If what you're doing distracts you from driving safely isn't it distracted driving? Whether its talking or texting on a cell phone, shaving or putting on lipstick if your actions are causing you to drive in an unsafe manner let em explain it to the judge.

I hope I never have to sneeze while driving !!!

That's just crazy talk Frside007.

Please report to your nearest re-education center.

Pandora's box has been opened and it can never be closed. This driver was apparently made an example of when it comes to distracted driving and I say GOOD!

When will people learn? I don't have any hope that distracted driving will ever go back to the normal levels where it was back before the advent of cell phones (the "good old days" where people were just distracted by talking but at least didn't text).

I drive a semi and and watch as the cars pass me on the interstate. My best estimate, conservatively speaking, is that about 40% of the car drivers passing me are holding phones in their hands. At times it looks like I'm driving amongst a bunch of drunk drivers after the bars have closed... but it's only rush hour.

Nope, we are cooked as a society. Not many have the will to do the right thing anymore when it comes to postponing pleasure, even when it comes to their own safety and the safety of others. Distracted driving is a societal problem and it will never return to how it "used to be" because personal corruption only gets worse, never better.

Hope there is more to this story than just putting on some lip balm. Maybe she was driving erratically because of the distraction. Safe travels all.

I've seen guys shaving while driving on the highways before. I"ve seen it all. LOL

That will be the next form of distracted driving. The first person will be the guy on the Apple Discussions who complained that Apple didn't engineer the watch correctly because he was getting s sore shoulder from trying to figure out how his new one worked.

ericruby,
You must be joking...You're really not serious or this stupid are you?

While I am indeed fairly stupid (I can lift a ton, but I can't spell it), I was indeed joking and was not serious. I thought the smiley face would be a give-away, but it may not show up on all devices.

Mea culpa if I insulted you, it was not my intent and I apologize.

Kudos for being willing to and for taking the time to make this reply.

For a LEO to be looking for and at these alleged transgressions, isn't that a distraction itself?

Good for her! I recently had a young woman texting and driving in front of me on the Verrazano Bridge. Her head was down and she wasn't paying any attention to what was going on around her; her vehicle was slowing down to a crawl as well.

I changed lanes to pass her and blew my horn too, but she never even bothered to look up.

As they used to say on the show 'Blue Collar' - "Here's your sign"!

In Seattle, guy in a pickup drops his cell phone... reaches down to find it and guess what.... CRASH into the car in front of him causing injuries... Don't have a problem ticketing distracted drivers.

i see this everyday on the highway. car going slow, when you pass, they are looking down and texting...

Is putting on lip balm same as lip stick?

I once saw someone making a sandwich while driving. Luckily there wasn't much traffic.

Lip Balm is the #1 killer on Vegas streets!
Lmao!

The dictionary defines "distracted" as:

"Having ones attention diverted" to the point of "rendering one incapable of behaving in a normal manner".

There are things/actions that you could be doing while driving a vehicle that (under the law), you could be ticketed for... yet, on the other hand, you could still be doing those same above things/actions and "NOT" be distracted while driving.

As far as I'm concerned, if I'm doing something that doesn't distract me from "SAFELY" operating a vehicle, then I'm "NOT" a distracted driver... no matter what I'm doing!

Nuvi1300WTGPS

Due to the passing of a great friend he left me a BMW550i GT, you want distraction????????, try getting behind the wheel of one of these beasts. I have been driving this for 4 months and would not take it into traffic, too much going on in the "cockpit", buzzers, bells & flashing lights my lips are all cracked and blistered no time for lip balm. I would trade the BMW factory for the return of my friend.

Finally we take care of the serious stuff!!!!! Forget the thousands or rather tens/100's/millions of thousands of accidents caused by INCOMPETENT drivers. I'm sure this action will prevent one or two accidents but hey, "It's better than doing nothing"????????

Well I'm sure we can all sleep better now! /rantoff

I would hope to see every person operating a vehicle of any type being cited for distracted driving if one follows the position being subscribed to here.

Presumably, berating, seeing, and perhaps farting (if they can prove your doing it ) would qualify as being components of distracted driving.

Perhaps we should outlaw all forms of transportation under any condition and revert to only allowing walking!

After all, we all know that there is no such thing as distracted driving, it's just a huge government conspiracy to take away our rights. No one ever really does anything behind the wheel that would take their attention away from driving.
There were not 3,154 people killed in 2013 from distracted driving, nor were there more than 424,000 people injured in accidents that were distracted driving related. It can't possibly be true that more than 28% of traffic accidents are caused by texting and cellphone use alone, never mind about other distractions.
Who really believes that you have to take your eyes off the road to send a text message, read an email, apply makeup, shave, read a newspaper or book, or any other number of activities some people identify as distracted driving?
Just yesterday I did not see a woman with a cellphone to her left ear cut me off as she made a left turn across 3 lanes of traffic. I never saw that guy wandering between two lanes as he was juggling his coffee and cellphone. On my morning commute I never saw that woman reading a novel perched on her steering wheel. This morning, I did not see the young man looking down at his lap while he drifted into my lane as I passed him on the highway. Nope, there is no such thing as distracted driving, I've just imagined all these and many more incidences.
As for enforcement, why should law enforcement be wasting their time and our money looking out for public safety on our roadways anyways? I mean we pay taxes to support these roads - we should be able to use them as we see fit without consideration for other drivers.

"In other words you can get a ticket for anything that takes your eyes off the road or your hands off the wheel" according to news reporter. Does that mean I'm a lawbreaker every time I change gears since I have a manual transmission? Can't shift w/o one hand on the shift lever. And if I look up at a traffic sign, my eyes are not on the road, they are looking up so that would be a violation too.

Tried to explain to the officer that i had just flaterlated (farted) she insisted that i opened the window, oppps, i think she still be on the on the side off the road with her toes curled up. VIVA nature!!!!.

when the cops are constantly talking on cell phones, operating radar detectors, and using a radio while driving. Their actions should be considered distracting to the act of driving.

many police officers have forgotten the most important part of their job is to serve. As a group, they have become more arrogant and developed an attitude to where they practice a double standard. Those laws may apply to you and me, but not them.

I can scare the spam out of someone if I use my air horn. And believe me I'm tempted to do just that at least 10 times day when I pass people I see are texting. But I don't. They may just swerve and that serves no good result.

It's really bad now. So many things are now illegal no one can do anything without violating some law.

In Arizona they have a DUI law where the standard is not BAC anymore, it's "impaired to the slightest degree".

There is a field sobriety test that a group of paralegals from a lawfirm could not pass at lunch when none had been drinking.

The test is designed specifically for everyone to fail. So now, they can arrest you and charge you for DUI even when you have not been drinking. Even if you are just clumsy.

I like the law to have objective standards for charging us, citizens. Subjective standards are not good enough for me.

What's next? Changing the volume on the radio, surely that must be too dangerous. How about drinking from a bottle of water in one of your convenient cup holders?

Where does it all end?

It's simple... It ends when you no longer breathe...and on that note, then the g'ment steps in and tried to tax your estate out of existence. Put up a fuss and they give you a room at the grey-bar hotel.

Texting seems benign compared to the folks I see writing emails or playing games on their mobile.

If I could insert that *** N. S. I. S. MEME with the Joker, I would.

I don't think anyone is saying there isn't distracted driving, I think they are saying anything can cause distracted driving, even applying Chap Stick (sorry, I have no truck with generic lip balm ).

Cue the Doors: "keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel ....."

It is estimated there are 620,000 drivers in the US at any one moment holding a cell phone to their ear during daylight hours.

According to a new government study, the majority of those will be women and most of those are below the age of 25. Of the estimated 13.5 million drivers on the road, 6% of those vehicles will be women on cell phones while 3.6% are male.

The full report, which should make our resident statistician chortle with glee can be found at http://www.trb.org/main/blurbs/172559.aspx