Our esteemed Governer Brian Sandoval passed the law banning the use of cellphones while driving this past fall and it went into full effect on New Years Day. Since then I’ve seen more people being pulled over by city, county, and state police in 3 weeks than in a year. But with the banning of cellphone use while driving, people think its okay to just park on the side of the highway to talk with little or no consideration for other drivers. When I say no consideration, I’m talking about the people who don’t park far enough away from the edge of the road! The highway patrol has been issuing citations for these people because there have been several complaints throughout the state about it. Emergency Lanes are designed for an Emergency. Flat tire, Car Breaking down, and a Medical Emergency. When people sit on the side of the road and talk on their phone just for the sake of talking, they don’t realize they’re blocking that lane for someone has a real emergency! I think the only way these people will learn is if they’re sitting on the side of the road talking on their phone and get hit by a Semi-truck…Maybe that’ll wake them up! My advice is this…If you really need to talk to someone, park at least 10 feet away from the edge of the road if its possible!
Good…I wish all states took this seriously.
On most Interstate highways (if not all) parking on the shoulder is illegal. Best bet would be to pull off on an exit if you need to make a call. Glad they are cracking down!
Nevada also has extremely tough laws concerning DUI/DWI…In any state you go to jail if you get caught driving under the influence, but in Nevada, you get the book tossed at you so to speak. The lady who cuts my hair, her granddaughter got arrested for a DUI a few months ago and that girl got her license suspended for 6 months and has to pay a $3000 fine! She didn’t have to spend a lot of time in jail because the weekend she spent there after being arrested was “time already served”. Also in Nevada, if someone who is talking on their cellphone while driving causes an accident that involves severe injury or death they could face a prison sentence of up to 1-6 years! With a DUI/DWI, someone causes an accident that involves death or serious injury, they’re looking at sentence from 1-20 years and a huge fine. Nevada is pretty tough with certain offenses but they tend to be a little lax about speeders though.
Having spent some time in Saudi Arabia, I’m always amazed at the difference in what is perceived to be good or bad. A vey large number of activities legal in Nevada would get you jailed for life or BEHEADED in Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, reckless and distracted driving is OK. Just don’t pass a Sheik or any member of the royal family.
However, I agree with a crackdown on distracted driving. We have a law here but I have yet to see any tickets being handed out. We are now going through the warning stage.
Nevada is pretty tough with certain offenses but they tend to be a little lax about speeders though.
That’s as it should be in general (speed does not kill. Speeders who drive unsafely kill). But Nevada is going about it the wrong way with cell phone drivers. There are already laws against distracted driving. If someone’s driving like an idiot, they get pulled over and given a ticket for unsafe driving. If they had a cell phone up to their ear at the time, they should get another ticket for distracted driving. While I think states should feel free to up the penalty on this, pulling someone over who is talking on a cell phone but is not driving like an idiot is somewhat bass ackward. While the officer is writing the safe driver who happened to be using a phone a ticket, how many dangerous drivers are cruising past the traffic stop while eating, reading, applying makeup, having sex, or just driving like a moron? (and yes, I have seen all of this happen on the road, including having sex).
When you then take into account the fact that most of the cell phone laws provide exemption for law enforcement (they like to use cell phones to talk to other officers when they don’t want whatever they have to say going out over the air where anyone with a scanner can listen in) you have to start questioning things. Are cops super-human in their ability to not be distracted by a cell phone? (no) Do they get special training on safely using a cell phone while driving? (no) Are they not then as susceptible to distraction as an average motorist? (yes) And yet it’s safe for them to be on the phone while driving? That must mean that the phone itself is not the problem, but rather crappy driving and the failure to place driving ahead of all other priorities.
In other words, ban cell phones, and you’ll have the people who were driving safely before, still driving safely, while the people who allowed themselves to focus on the phone call to the exclusion of paying attention to driving finding other things to distract themselves with. Playing with the GPS, playing with the radio, reading the radio to see what song is playing, digging down into that McDonald’s bag for the last few fries, and then looking to make sure they didn’t miss one, reading directions, reading pamphlets, yelling at kids, talking to passengers, rooting around in the footwell to find something they dropped - all of these things should be lumped under “distracted driving” and punished - severely - without having to pass new laws for each individual distraction.
In short, cell phones have become a fun scapegoat to focus on rather than focusing on the unpleasant fact (which would require actual work and inconvenience for politicians and the motoring public to fix) that people are crappy drivers, and we need better driver training, testing, and enforcement in order to up the safety on our roads.
Distracted driving is dangerous and every state should crack down on this. I am a motorcycle rider myself and found that too many drivers are not paying attention on the road. It makes it dangerous for others and is selfish.
I have been looking for ways to keep safe because of this and if any of you are motorcycle riders please do the same.
In Nevada, alot of the Police and Sheriff’s Departments have been issuing blue tooth ear pieces to police officers. The Local Sheriff has mentioned in the newspaper several times that he discourages the use of cellphones while driving among his deputies. I’m glad Nevada made it illegal to use cellphones while driving. There are too many people who can’t talk on their cellphones and drive. They’ve completely ruined it for people who can talk on a cellphone and drive.