We are constantly amazed, bewildered and frustrated by the stupidity of Queens drivers.
They choose to ignore the physics of driving. They are operating a machine that consists of a couple of thousand pounds of steel, rubber, glass and plastic down the roads at various speeds and they DO NOT look where they are going.
Instead, they engage in attention-distracting acts like tuning the radio, playing iPods, changing CDs, eating all manner of foods and beverages, smoking, reading, putting on makeup and making cell phone calls.
The cell phone calls can only be made using hands-free technology by law, but are still a major source of distraction from a driver’s number one job – driving the car.
Spawned with the explosion of cell phones is the plague of TEXTING. Nowadays everyone texts their friends and family all the time, especially our teenagers.
There is a bill working its way to the Senate floor, the ALERT Act (Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act) which would ban text messaging from the driver’s seat.
Armed with many tragic text-message-related mass transit crashes and a host of recent studies underscoring the dangers of texting while driving, Senators Charles Schumer of New York, New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu and North Carolina’s Kay Hagan cosponsored the ALERT Act and introduced it on July 29.
The bill would require individual states to prohibit emailing or “texting” by those operating a car, truck and most vehicles of mass transit.
According to Schumer’s office, local law enforcement would enforce the ban, much like police departments currently enforce driving laws pertaining to cell phone calls and seat belt use. The U.S. Department of Transportation would establish minimum penalties within six months of the bill’s passage. Additionally, the Secretary of Transportation would determine if a state has adequately implemented the law and states deemed noncompliant would risk losing 25 percent of their federal highway funds for each year the regulation is not enforced.
Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. currently impose bans on texting while driving, while another 11 states have modified bans, such as restrictions regarding minors and messaging on highways.
This is one law we need now!
