Distracted driving news in review: The following states pages on HandsFreeInfo.com had significant updates during the past week: Utah (Senate OKs teen cell phone ban) West Virginia (Senate OKs governor's distracted driving plan) Virginia (primary enforcement bill now before the full Senate) Washington state (partial commercial trucking texting exemption advances) ("Recent updates" are listed daily on the right side of all editorial pages.) … [Read more...]
Distracted driving news updates (week of 1/29/2012)
February 3, 2012 by 1 Comment
Distracted driving news in review: The following states pages on HandsFreeInfo.com had significant updates during the past week: New Jersey (added several bills, including reckless driving plan) West Virginia (governor's texting/cell phone bill upgraded) Missouri (added several texting and DD bills) Ohio (bleak prospects for texting bill) Illinois (2011 totals for distracted driving tickets) Mississippi (added 2012 legislation) ("Recent updates" are listed daily on the right side of all editorial pages.) … [Read more...]
Stick shifts slowing distracted teens
January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Stick shifts aren't extinct -- it just seems that way -- and concerns over teen safety may be helping the manual transmission systems make a mini-comeback. A Northern California TV station reports that some area parents are buying their teenagers vehicles with stick shifts in order to keep the kids' hands off cell phones. Sacramento News10 interviewed a 17-year-old who says that while many of her friends text and drive, "With a stick shift, I can't really check my phone," she said. Her parents bought her a Honda Civic. Stick shifts have largely disappeared in the U.S., with about 5.5 … [Read more...]
Truckers: Why no public cell ban?
January 10, 2012 by 13 Comments
The federal government says truck drivers can't talk on handheld cell phones. Fair enough, the pros say -- but what about the "four wheelers" who cause most of the wrecks involving trucks? A week after that federal ban on handheld cell phone use went into effect, the trucking industry seems to have the issue in its rear-view mirror. But some truckers still want to know why professional drivers are being singled out. "I am so tired of hearing, 'The feds can't do anything with four-wheelers,'" one pro wrote in an industry forum. "If they're gonna travel the same roads I do, they can follow the … [Read more...]
Alaska texting law gets a rewrite
January 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
A pair of state representatives have submitted to the Legislature a new version of Alaska's text messaging law to ensure its intent is clear to the courts. Reps. Les Gara and Bill Thomas on Jan. 6 filed the bipartisan legislation House Bill 255, which would remove any doubt that texting and driving is illegal in Alaska. The ambiguous wording of Alaska's 2008 prohibition on texting & driving came back to haunt legislators when a magistrate in tiny Kenai ruled that the state needed to be more precise with the distracted driving law. The magistrate noted correctly that its wording never … [Read more...]
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