Residents of New York State, beware: texting and driving is now 100 percent banned. No, it’s not the first state to enact such a ban—far from it, actually—but sometimes things don’t register till they happen in your backyard. The law goes into effect today, and infractions carry a maximum fine of $150.
One thing to keep in mind is that the new law is a secondary enforcement law, meaning that a state trooper isn’t going to pull you over because he sees you texting while at a stop light. No, the officer will have to have another reason to pull you over (maybe you’re driving erratically, or speeding) and then he finds that you have an iPhone in your lap that’s at the text messaging interface with a half-written text message. That’s when you can expect to be hit with a fine.
Of course, the best way to avoid any such fine is to ignore your phone while on the road. What could be so important that you need to take your eyes off the road as you’re hurtling several tons of matter though spacetime at high speeds? Really, you don’t need to reply to every single text message within eight seconds; your friends will understand.
Now you know, fellow New Yorkers!
Somehow this doesn’t make me feel any safer from getting hit by an intexticated driver.
Nice one!
Nazi New York, at it again
I have no idea what that means. Are you advocating texting while driving?
nearly a record for Godwin’s law
This will impact a lot of people but, younger drivers 16-22 will definitely be affected. They keep their noses stuck in their phones almost constantly. When they become actual adults I wonder how their communication skills will be? Oh well, that’s a conversation for a different topic…
It’s a good law. How can someone pay attention to the road when they can’t stop texting for 2 minutes.
It’s good because texting is more dangerous rather than talk while driving.
it’s good because texting is more dangerous than talking on phone while driving.
I think we should ban changing the radio station while driving as well as remove climate controls that could distract drivers.
Will they ban using GPS on my iPhone, too?
Another option is to install software onto your phones to keep you focused on the road. Check out http://www.zoomsafer.com – a new solution that helps you filter your incoming calls based on priority, and auto-responds to incoming text and emails so folks know that you will get back to them when you are done driving. Removing distractions and keeping drivers focused on the road should make driving safer for everyone.
this is GOOD (not that it stops people.. talking while driving is banned and people do it ALL THE TIME HERE STILL!!)
but studies have shown that texting while driving is worse that drinking and driving. A person with a .08 BAC had better reaction times than a person texting.
nice.
Just hang up and drive.
EVERY country should bring in anti-texting while driving laws. You can’t text and pay attention at the same time.
Don’t be an idiot and text or talk on the phone while driving. You’re just going to cause an accident and most likely end up in jail if you survive, where you will be raped by someone named Big Bubba.
Every time i Get in my car it links up via bluetooth with the radio. Don’t you think that they will mandate a restriction whereas “when bluetooth to car, Text is shut down”. It seems like a simple enough task to pull off.
My point is that within a few years, drivers won’t even have a choice of texting.
As a native NY’er now living in Maryland, its so strange to be able to use my phone while driving! To discipline myself, I downloaded a software called “ZoomSafer” at http://www.zoomsafer.com. It locks your phone when you start driving and I have a message sent back to people trying to reach me that tells them I’ll call them when I reach wherever it is that I’m going. Its a great application!
I drive with concentration. Whenever a text message is received drivesafe.ly application responds with auto responder message immediately.