Greg Bean
Coda
Nine. That’s the number of people I saw talking on their cell phones while driving on my way to work this morning.
Of the nine, one was a lady talking on the cell phone while blithely running a red light on Cranbury Road. I honked my horn when she nearly ran into me, but she was so busy talking, she didn’t notice the near collision, the blaring horn or the one-fingered salute I gave her for nearly killing us both. One of the law-breaking drivers was a cop, but because I’m not sure whether I was in Jamesburg or Englishtown at the time, I can’t say for certain what department he belonged to. I can say that whoever he was talking to must have just told him a pretty funny joke, since he was laughing to beat the band.
That’s a fairly regular occurrence on my commute, and I imagine it’s that way on yours as well. Since New Jersey passed a law making it illegal to drive while speaking on a hand-held cell phone in 2004, that law has proved itself to be a miserable failure. In fact, it’s one of the most universally flouted bits of legislation in the history of laws aimed at modifying personal behavior, right up there with Prohibition.
Certain law enforcement officers of my acquaintance tell me the law has failed because when the legislators wrote it, they made talking on a cell phone while driving a secondary offense, even though the fine can go as high as $250.
In other words, cops can’t stop motorists simply because they see them talking on their cell phones. They have to be talking on their cell phones and committing a primary offense – like running a red light or speeding – at the same time before the arresting officer can tack on an extra charge of talking on a cell phone while driving.
I think that might be a part of it, but a more basic reason for the failure is this: most people are willing to break a law they are not convinced is necessary, that they believe is a bad law, or that they see everyone else breaking with impunity. Especially if there’s a 99.99 percent chance they can get away with it.
For illustration, I give you Gov. Jon Corzine, who was almost killed recently in a car crash in which he was not wearing his seat belt. In a recent interview, Corzine said that it was fairly common for him to neglect to buckle up, although he wasn’t proud of that fact.
Lots of people break the same law. Like talking on the cell phone while driving, going without your seat belt is a secondary offense, so you have to be stopped for something more serious before you’ll ever get a ticket for it.
If they truly want to reduce the number of people talking on their cell phones or going unbuckled while driving, the New Jersey Legislature ought to make both of those offenses primary violations. For some unfathomable reason they haven’t done it, but it does look like they’re learning when it comes to certain new bits of legislation.
The Legislature is considering a bill that would make sending text messages on a cell phone or a personal digital assistant like a BlackBerry a primary offense, punishable by a fine of up to $250. The bill has 20 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle, and is expected to come up for debate late this month or early next month. Then it will pass to the full Assembly and Senate, where it is expected to gain approval.
Despite the fact that violating the law will be a primary offense, however, I think it will turn out to be as big a failure as the cell phone ban.
For one thing, the cop will have to have evidence the driver was engaged in the act of sending a text message instead of simply using the hands-free feature to talk on the cell phone. If the driver was just using the hands-free feature to talk, he or she would only have been committing a secondary offense, and the cop wouldn’t have had legal reason to make a stop.
And what about the driver who claims he wasn’t text messaging, but was simply looking at the calendar on his cell phone, using the calculator, or enjoying the photo he or she took of their kids on the way to school that morning?
None of those things is apparently covered in the bill, so the cop would have to prove the driver was actually texting, which is a fairly difficult proposition.
Does anybody else see a problem here?
For the sake of argument, I’m willing to say the legislators who sponsored this bill have their hearts in the right place and aren’t just coming up with new laws to make us think they’re doing something.
But not only would this law be difficult to enforce, there are too many loopholes and possible defenses for it to be effective.
To pass an effective law, they’d have to make all behavior that might distract a driver – drinking coffee, changing the CD, eating a burger, checking your hair in the rearview – a primary offense. They’d have to make it a law that while you’re driving, driving is all you can do. Anything else would be verboten.
That’s not gonna happen, though. We might cowboy up and keep quiet if they try to take away our cell phones and text messages while driving. Mess with our Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and there’ll be an out-and-out rebellion.
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As you’re planning your two or three piddling weeks of vacation this year, consider this. During the recent election in France where the 35-hour work week became an issue, the amount of vacation time most workers get in that country – five weeks or more – was also debated by people who thought that if they have to work 40 hours a week, they ought to get more than five or six weeks of vacation (not counting holidays).
In America, where the average worker gets 10 grudging vacation days a year, we can hardly believe a thing like that, but in Europe, it’s the norm. In Denmark, Finland, France (where nearly everybody takes the whole month of August off), Norway, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, the U.K. and the Netherlands, the standard is four to five weeks, not counting holidays, sick time and personal time.
In Austria, the highest minimum is 38 days of paid vacation. An average Swiss worker gets six weeks paid vacation, holidays and personal time, all while working a 35-hour week.
I’ve never had a reason to hate the Swiss, but now I hate everything about them, even their chocolate and cheese. Of course, that might just be jealousy talking.
Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].