Hands free cell phone law.

Sounds like they are joining nearly every other state that favors life safety over handheld phones while driving.

A different observation after regularly driving thru 27+ states plus 2 more irregularly for the last 23 years. I have observed that the states that allow cell use have more drivers that pay more attention to driving. The states that don"t allow it are full of drivers that are looking down to hide their cell use and pay a lot less attention to driving. Semi drivers are some of the worst.
Speaking about semi drivers I have observed that states that enforce the move over law for vehicles on the side of the road are the worst for trucks mainly but cars also waiting to the last second to suddenly pop into the left lane cutting off traffic in the left lane and almost causing an accident just to avoid a possible ticket. maybe they should look at the road ahead.

Ontario encompasses all those things.

Have I ever used things while driving? Of course. There's no reason to hold a phone in one's hand unless no bluetooth. But as a humanity we find controversy in everything--example, some oppose ABS brakes as they can pump the brakes faster than an abs pump can, and claim seat belts do not promote safety. One common explanation is money grab (the almighty excuse for everything) lol

Then we can say beverages, snacks, screaming children, flying hockey and soccer gear, everything should not happen while driving.

Last Sat. we drove from PA to CT. What is a 3 hour trip was 6. There were 3 multiple car accidents along the way, some with 10+ vehicles on dry pavement and the day was sunny. How would these accidents possibly happen? Do we sit back and say shucks it's ok, let's do nothing about them. We'll just plan to leave 3 extra hours to travel 180 miles.

The interesting thing is at Edison NJ, GPS said 2 hours. At the Mario M Cuomo Bridge, GPS said 2 hours. On 287 E, still 2 hours. CT is 2 hours away from everyone lol

Any cell usage distracts a driver, even hands free. When I was working, I often had to speak with customers while driving. I had cases where, I was too focused on the conversation and missed my exit from the highway.
When you're connected via even Bluetooth, many cars require that you touch the screen to acknowledge an incoming text message.
Also, if you have a passenger, please don't turn your head 90 degrees to talk to that person. You're in a car, and they can hear you, if you're watching the traffic ahead of you.

I unpaired my phone from the car and I simply don't respond top any calls or texts. Nothing is that urgent.

…to give people a rude awakening when they don’t move over for a vehicle with flashing lights. Particularly on I-275 around Cincinnati. They will pull a vehicle over for speed, whatever, and another trooper will pull in front of the stopped vehicle without displaying lights. They will observe traffic in their rear view mirror and surprise; no lane change, citation time.

Personally I’d like to see communications (voice or text) disabled any time the vehicle is moving over 10 mph. In addition, once the vehicle slowed below 10 mph or stopped, the phone would be inoperative for communications for something like 30 seconds. Phones today have the capability to determine speed through triangulation with towers or gps.

I’m quite annoyed at people who have to check their devices every time they come to a stop. I have to frequently travel a distance of about 5 miles that encompasses 17 traffic lights. All too frequently I have to toot the horn at the person in front of me because they are distracted by some device. That 5 mile journey all too often is 20 minutes and I would guess 2 minutes of that is due to distracted drivers.

I am quite sympathetic to your position but have (only!) one problem with it: passengers shouldn't be penalized.

I do use the bluetooth connection to my DriveBozo 51 for calls but they must be rudimentary. My driving style can fairly be called right lane slug and that is because 75 MPH demands too much concentration. Between pronghorns, deer, elk, and drivers who think that the laws of physics don't apply to them (particularly in bad weather or night) I need to take it easy.

Question: Do these laws pertain to front-seat passengers as well?

Phil

I agree that anything or anyone else in the vehicle can be a distraction. My wife ran into a snow bank while playing with with the radio when she was a lot younger. Smoking while driving was another accident cause I have seen. My cell is still paired with my car, however the car has hands free and voice command. I can set my cell to ignore the call and send a reply that I am driving and will call back. Also has a HUD which keeps your eyes on the road when looking ahead. Flying private planes taught me the absolute need to keep my head on a swivel at all times, works good in a car too.
I don't know what the correct actions or laws should be, however people are people and laws will be ignored as most of them are now. People assume they are safe in their steel and plastic cocoon and they are not hurting anyone else.

Passengers can be a large part of the distraction problem as well.

I used to conduct business in my company truck using a hands free phone. I would also carry coworkers. I found both to be equally distracting.

Laws can be enacted to ban cell phone use but not to keep passengers quiet.

I find two or three drops of chloroform on a handkerchief works well.

I see drivers all the time, that feel that they have to turn their head 90 degrees to talk with the passenger. The passenger should be able to hear you, in a car no matter which way you're facing.

Now don't get me started about people with unrestrained pets in the car. You see the pet going from side to side and often with it sticking it's head out of the drivers window.

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2011/02/ohio_gov_john_kasich_...

For the record, I've never been stopped by a police officer who was an idiot. I've only been stopped by a police officer when I did something wrong. I got into a fist fight with a cop when I was 19, and no, I didn't win. But I look back and realize that I was in the wrong, and at the time? He told me he forgave me and to shape up because as I got older, there would likely be less of a tendency to let bad behavior go. I guess that officer with good intentions, likely could never have envisioned 2023.

In the late ‘50s my family was living in a city housing project. When I was 13 and my brother 10, my dad bought us leg irons to use as bicycle locks. I messed with mine and locked my bike up. My brother put his tight on his ankles and one was defective. My dad was hack sawing it off when a neighbor, a cop just off duty, got home. He offered to shoot the lock off.

I’ve had just one other interaction with an off duty cop that was dumb, but at least there was no potential for harm.

Some idiot is on the cellphone,especially on an Interstate. They very often slow down and yak on the phone olivious to whats going on around them.
Where I live cellphone use unless handsfree has been outlawed for years but not everyone has got the message yet.Even hands free is still a distraction. If caught there is a very hefty fine and rightly so!

Now to talk about in Mexico. I see people in cars, on bicycles and motorcycles talking and or texting on the move. SCARY !!!

Any mention of a CB radio? Although not a popular as when I was a kid they are still some out there. I still use one in my Jeep.

Any mention of a CB radio? Although not a popular as when I was a kid they are still some out there. I still use one in my Jeep.
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Where I live is very close to a Multi lane highway and there is a steady stream of 18 wheelers day and night. The English truckers used to be found on Ch 19 and Frenchies on Ch 12

Now with our law prohibiting use of handheld microphones that CB use has practically disappeared.

I'm guessing you're in Canada, I haven't heard of any laws against CB in the US.

It's been a while since I was a farm youth but we used chloroform to put older large breeding boar hogs to sleep in order castrate them after their breeding days were over. It seems the dose was more than a few drops though as we would soak a cloth with chloroform and hold it over the snout until the hog passed out. Then the vet would do the honors as the mature hogs jewels were the size of cantaloupes. On the younger and smaller males pigs, we would perform the deed ourselves by holding the pig down and render them sterile in about 3-4 minutes using a knife with no anesthesia. The pigs would squeal like we were killing them but once they were released they went back to eating seemingly non the worse for wear.

I learned a lot about life, including the birds and bees, as a youth on the farm.

I am in favor of laws mandating hands free or don't use it. I'm not in favor of disabling the phone completely (yes, I do realize 911 would still work).

Like valuable life's lessons. So many things from our youth, are.

Again quite different, but some of my lessons were from plowing snow using a 17 HP diesel farm tractor in suburbia at 12, then working in a restaurant as a busboy at 14.

My dad would tell me I had to be completely stopped before changing gears, the transmission is not synchromesh. Not knowing that word, I went with make sure I stopped before changing gears.

If farming is like transportation today, having a clutch would mean no applicants for the job lol