iPhone owners that drive in California are gearing up for another blow from the man. Effective day one of 2009, the infamous cell phone law will be expanded to include text messaging.
As things are now, a hefty fine is dealt to anyone caught yapping sans hands-free device while driving. I can’t help but feel resentment towards this law. How will they know if I am text messaging and not thumbs-downing a song on Pandora or switching between Genius playlists or checking my Google Maps for my next turn?
I doubt they will ever be able to enforce this law. Under the current hands free law it is allowed to still “dial” directly from the phone, how are they going to be able to prove that you weren’t dialing a phone number? How do they know you were actually texting? I see this as being a nightmare for the traffic court judges. Better yet it will be just like the current handsfree law where numerous CHP officers have already stated they won’t enforce it, since they don’t feel that it will ever stand up in court.
well, they could just check your SMS page and if it shows you sent a text message 1 minute before the cop pulled you over, that kinda busts you right there
Call me crazy, but a cop going through my text messages is a little Orwellian for my liking….
I spoke to a few cops and a CHiP. They all said that unless they see your driving being hindered, they don’t give a crap what you do on the phone. They also seem to believe that judges don’t care what you are doing with your phone, texting or not, as long as you are distracted enough to let it affect your driving. Sucks really.