Category Archives: Law Enforcement

Penalties for Cell Phone Usage While Driving

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Texting and driving is illegal in New York, and fines are now higher than ever.

“When you hear that noise go off it’s almost like its suspense you have to know who it is, you got to know what they want and I know for me I get excited every time I hear it so I look and I see,” says Brent Fallon of Endicott about cell phones.

Addictions grow just as fast as technology.

Fatal accidents from texting and driving now have New York State charging $150 and adding three points to your license if pulled over and ticketed, and police will no longer need a traffic violation to pull someone over if they suspect an individual of using a cell phone.

A local city department is now implementing new procedures to try and catch violators.

“We’ll probably start off with some unmarked car, these cars will be out at the traffic lights looking for people text messaging while they’re sitting at the light, and as they pull away the officer’s can go ahead and enforce the new law,” says Lt. Gerald Mullins of the Vestal Police Department.

Mullins also states that officers look for the same signs as drunk driving, like swerving.

“Well it will be much easier to make the charge for one, I regard texting as more dangerous than cell phone talking because you have to completely take your eyes off the road to sit there and type,” Broome County Sheriff David Harder says.

“Frankly people think that they’re the exception to the rule and I’m glad that there is a law against it because it is deadly to do that and I always remind my kids about it and other kids too,” says Barbara Schwerd of Westchester.

The new law applies to any use of all options cell phones carry, but police, firefighters, and EMTs are exempt from it.

The law also does not penalize the use of a handheld device stuck to a surface or a GPS.  For more information on handheld device law and the legal penelties of disobying these laws, contact Estey & Bomberger, LLP for more information.

Pilot Programs Prove Effective With Texting/Talking While Driving

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NHTSA’s results prove that texting and talking on cell phones while driving have reduced by one third in Syracuse and Hartford due to their new pilot programs.

The government has begun to enforce stricter laws with the use of cell phones and driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has supported two pilot programs from April 2010 to April 2011 in Syracuse, New York and Hartford, Connecticut, which has a new campaign called “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other,” similar to the successful “Click it or Ticket” or drunk driving campaigns.

The NHTSA provided $200,000 for each of two pilot programs in each state, while the state was also supported with an additional $100,000. The campaigns use law enforcement crack down, insurance companies, and state officials to provide public seminars and newer laws to help keep citizens aware of the dangers of texting and driving. The year-long program was proven to be very effective.

The results show that each state had reduced their cell phone usage while behind the wheel by at least one-third. Syracuse declined about one-third, while Hartford had a 57 percent drop in handheld cell phone usage and a 72 percent drop in texting.

Researchers looked at Hartford and Syracuse before the programs began and found that Hartford had double the amount of drivers using cell phones then Syracuse. Texting while driving fell from 2.8 to 1.9 percent in Syracuse while Hartford had a drop from 3.9 to 1.1 percent.

“These findings show that strong laws, combined with high visible police enforcement, can significantly reduce dangerous texting and cell phone use behind the wheel,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “Based on these results, it is crystal clear that those who try to minimize this dangerous behavior are making a serious error in judgement, especially when a half a million people are injured and thousands more are killed in distracted driving accidents.”

Enforcement of Texting While Driving Ban

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Lawmakers are now questioning all enforcement after New York’s new texting-while-driving ban.

Consequences could be fatal if police officials don’t take action soon, as there are so many distracted drivers currently on the road each day. 50 percent of individuals driving are distracted on the roads. Lawmakers responded a couple of years back by banning texting while driving, but making it a secondary offense rather than a primary offense. Primary offenses allow police to pull over individuals with probable cause. Secondary offenses allow police to only ticket individuals for the offense as long as they’ve been pulled over first for another reason, like speeding.

A review of traffic tickets from the Journal’s Albany bureau shows that those who were ticketed for texting and driving while already being pulled over were only a fraction of the number in comparison to those who were talking on a cell phone without the use of a hands-free device, which is currently a primary offense. The Albany bureau found nearly 332,000 tickets being issued statewide in 2010 for cell phone usage behind the wheel of a car. 3,200 tickets were issued for texting while driving in the first year the law took place.

The new law now states that texting while driving is now considered a primary offense and the fine is now set at $150 and the state will now require a distracted-driving curriculum for those seeking their driver’s license.

A Federal Highway Administration study now shows that drivers who were texting while driving were 23 times more likely to get in a car accident. It also says each year thousands of people are killed in car crashes caused from distracted driving. Young drivers under the age of 20 are at the highest risk for distracted drivers being involved in fatal crashes.

The Banning of Cell Phones

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A new Nevada law now bans talking and texting on cell phones while driving with the exception of the use of a hands-free device. However, a new study now shows that banning the use of cell phones in car does not decrease the number of car accidents. Mackenzie Warren from News 4 went deep into research and discovered that cell phone usage is not the main reason behind distracted driving, adding that no evidence has proved a hands-free device to be any less risky than a hand-held device behind the wheel. The study, conducted by the Governors Highway Safety Association, does not say that texting or talking on the phone while driving is safe, however it does say no real evidence has proved cell phone bans have cut down the number of car crashes.

The study used long-term data from all the nine states which currently do have a ban on cell phone usage behind the wheel, in which Nevada has just been added to the list. However the study also contradicts itself by saying drivers are distracted about 50 percent of the time on the road, yet people can learn to adapt to actually pay closer attention while driving and talking on the phone.

It also goes into how many drivers focus more while being at a risk, such as passing a construction zone.

“It’s popular to do. It looks like you’re doing something, but in today’s driving market there are a multitude of distractions of with phones are only one,” explains TMCC political scientist Fred Lokken. Lokken says it is still common for lawmakers to take action despite any data that may appear. He added the law passed Nevada’s legislature without much controversy.

Lokken also says the Governors Highway Safety Association is a great source for any information, along with another group called the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which revealed interesting information. “In each of the states that have imposed texting and hands-free requirements for cars, the [IIHS] literally found an uptick in accident rates-not a downtick.”

Lokken believes this is because drivers now try to hide using their cell phone usage, rather than keeping their phones in front while they can still see the road. “They were doing it up here and still had some sense of the field of vision, they’re now trying to do it down here where they’ve broken the plane of what’s going on which is what increases the accidents,” he says.

Cell Phone Citations are Higher for 2011

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The Cheyenne Police Department has given out 321 citations for the use of cell phones while driving for the first half of the year in the city, meaning the department is now expecting a higher number of citations this year. Last year a total of 481 citations were cited all together.

Department spokesman Sgt. Rob Dafoe says the increase is particularly in part due to special details which have targeted the problem.

“We had a special mobilization, among others, from May to June targeting cell phone use, and we had 63 citations from that effort alone,” he said.

“Talking with some of the officers, it’s like fishing in a tank out there. There are so many people doing it – and honestly most of them have ‘2’ county license plates. They know about the law and are just choosing to ignore it.”

Laramie County license plates begin with the number “2”.

Dafoe states that this and last year’s citations consisted mostly of tickets for talking on cell phones while driving with no hands-free device, and only a small percentage is due from texting.

The city currently has a fine of $125 for talking or texting while driving, and is a primary offense which means officers have the right to pull over anyone who is suspected of cell phone usage behind the wheel.

As of last year, the state now includes a $75 fine for texting while driving which is also considered a primary offense.

Councilman Don Pierson is a former police chief of Cheyenne who voted against the bill when it passed, agreeing that texting should be considered a primary offense due to the attention it takes from drivers on the road, but says talking on the phone should be a secondary offense, meaning officers only have the right to cite someone if they’ve already been pulled over for another offense.

Pierson also add that even though the ban began two years ago, he still has yet to see a study proving the number of reduced accidents in the city limits.

“We were supposed to get that report a year after it went into effect, and I still haven’t seen that,” he said. “If I had to guess, I would say that it hasn’t had a major impact on accident rates. There are a lot of things that distract drivers, and that ordinance really only tackles one thing.”
Council President Mark Rinne says he too would like to see a study along the same lines.

“It would be interesting to see that kind of data, if there is any like it,” he said. “I still see a lot of people ignoring it while I’m driving around.”

New Law Enforcment Reduces Distracted Driving

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Ray LaHood, Secretary for the Department of Transportation, says new strong laws and “highly visible” police enforcement have cut down texting and talking on cell phones while driving by a miraculous number in two cities.

New projects which have been federally funded have measured the increased effects of new law enforcement and public education seminars and campaigns in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut.

“These findings show that strong laws, combined with highly visible police enforcement, can significantly reduce dangerous texting and cellphone use behind the wheel,” says LaHood in a statement. “Based on these results, it is crystal clear that those who try to minimize this dangerous behavior are making a serious error in judgment, especially when half a million people are injured and thousands more are killed in distracted driving accidents.”

Each pilot program conducted in both the states was supported by $200,000 in federal funds and $100,000 in state funds. The state labeled the pilot programs as “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other,” which was the main media campaign theme based off the successful national seat belt campaign, “Click it or Ticket”.

Syracuse police have issued precisely 9,587 citations during four periods over the past year for drivers talking or texting on their cellphones while driving. Hartford issued 9,658 tickets during the same period for illegal phone use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration observed the usage of cellphones while driving before and after the new law enforcement crackdown in the two cities which alsooffered public awareness surveys at local DMV’s.

The department stated that both talking on cellphones and texting on cellphones behind an operating vehicle in Syracuse had decline by a third.

Hartford produced even more dramatic results showing a drop of 57 percent, nearly three-quarters, in the usage of talking and texting on cellphones while driving.

The department now says that NHTSA plans to test the same three-part formula, consisting of tough laws, strong enforcement, and public awareness, at now an unidentified statewide level.

A statement from the department says nearly 5,500 fatalities and a half-million injuries were a result from a distracted driver in 2009. Distracted driving traffic fatalities in 2009 account for up to 16 percent of all traffic accidents.

Thirty-four states, including the District of Columbia and Guam, currently have enacted texting-while-driving bangs, while nine states, including the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, have banned all handheld cellphone use together while driving.

Tougher Law Enforcement Would Cut Driving Distractions

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Despite Delaware’s strict laws against texting and driving with a car in motion, the roadways are still dangerous and action needs to be enforced.

Delaware police have issued more than 5,000 tickets to motorists since the law went into effect on the first of January.

A person can easily go out to the highway and get into a crash every day from distracted drivers either texting or talking on their cell phones.

State police say on Sunday a truck driver that was hauling potatoes missed a warning sign because he was talking on his phone.

A train had hit his truck and his potatoes were spilled all across the U.S. 113.

No one was hurt, luckily. But Distracted driving accidents are only increasing every day.

The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says distracted driving is currently the nation’s top driving priority.

Monday revealed new research that plans to step up all warnings and advertisements with law enforcement and hopefully cut driving accidents by a small percentage.

A brief test in Syracuse proved that both handheld cell phone use and texting behind the wheel had decline by one-third. Usages of cell phones and texting behind the wheel dropped by 57 percent in Hartford.

This was all conducted through many complains and education seminars by safety agencies, insurance companies, and law enforcement.