New York's Secret Weapon Against Texting Behind The Wheel: Jacked Up SUVs
New York is one of 40 states that have banned texting while driving. In the four or so years since the ban went into effect in New York state, a bit more than 11,000 tickets have been issued for all hand held phone violations, including texting.
That number seemed too small to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is so concerned about distracted driving that upped the number of demerit points a “texting while driving” violation will incurr to five points (from three). It takes 11 points to lose your license in New York. The Governor’s solution to jack up the number of citations issued was to give New York state troopers undercover SUVs, customized with increased ride height, presumably with some kind of airbag suspension. It seems that the high driving position of the lifted SUVs allows the police officers to look down into passenger cars and see whether drivers are using their phones. To publicize the stepped up enforcement, Gov. Cuomo and an ABC News crew got a ride-along with a New York state trooper, who pulled over four drivers in an hour for using their phones.
USA Today looked at many of the states (and D.C.) that have laws against texting while driving and how many tickets they’ve issued for it. The District of Columbia issued the most tickets, over 87,000 (for all hand-held violations), followed by California. Kansas issue the fewest, with 65.
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I'm beginning to question the wisdom of putting traffic enforcement in the hands of our criminal law enforcement system. I'd much rather have real police spending their time solving actual crimes against people and property than to work as revenue collectors hassling drivers. Why should exercising my right to freely travel expose me to all sorts of possible criminal prosecutions just because a cop feels like pulling me over? Yes, driving is considered a privilege, not a right, but freedom of travel is a concept deeply rooted in American culture and law.
I live in New York (in the suburbs of NYC) and I can't believe how many people text and drive. I think there are more drivers who are texting compared to drivers who are not. Seriously.....it really is a huge problem. I'm glad that NY is starting to take this seriously, but the problem is so widespread that I doubt they'll even make a dent. I guess it's revenue for the state though....
How about a dragnet that cross-references text message timestamps with speeds calculated from cellphone GPS and then auto-issues tickets to drivers? Most of the infrastructure to make this happen is already in place thanks to our friends at the NSA!
A few months ago I was rear-ended by a distracted driver of an official US government vehicle while driving a rented car. I was just stopped at a red light in a quiet neighborhood of Tacoma with absolutely no one around. This incident taught me that it is no longer a good idea to rent a car without buying all of the overpriced damage waiver coverage. Accidents now happen out of nowhere. It doesn't matter how you drive. This is what annoys me about texting. We want to think that if we drive carefully we can avoid accidents. It's a completely different world now. I'm not saying it's more dangerous necessarily, but driving feels less under our control. Isn't the whole basis of the appeal of automotive travel our sense of control? It's an illusion. An epidemic of distracted driving accidents is paving the way for self-driving cars. What is the self-driving car if not a means to recapture a few minutes a day in which you can more safely be subjected to Google advertising?