The California legislature and Highway Patrol are playing a game of Tic-Tac-Toe and there is never going to be a winner. The California Senate Bill 1613 was signed in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and put into effect on January 1st, 2008. Do you know what that is? If you read the title, you should see where I am going. The "Hands-Free" law.The most common thing I see when driving my routine 45-minute commute between residences is the non-use of hands-free devices. I used to get mad at the driver and yell "get off your cell phone," more often then not, throwing curse words in between. Now ... I just laugh.
I got a Bluetooth headset when the bill was enacted. I turned it on when I knew I was going to be driving for more than five minutes or if I was expecting a call. If my phone rang when I didn't have it on, I just didn't answer my phone. But for most Californians, the law, and resulting penalties, don't seem to concern them.
Often I have told friends that the law had good intentions, but there was no proper way of enforcing such a common occurrence. The easiest way to avoid getting a ticket for this offense, is just hiding your phone when you see a police officer.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that last bit. I had to lower my phone because there was a police officer. What were you saying?"
Even though studies have come out proving the dangers of distracted drivers, motorists still choose to use their cell phones while driving. And with that negligence has come a lot of excuses. Let me try to debunk some of these arguments.
#1: I can use my phone when I have it on speaker phone, so I don't need a headset.
This is only true if your car is equipped with the technology to have the telephone conversation played through the car's speakers. If you are holding your phone in one hand and talking with it on speaker phone, you are not obeying the "hands-free" law. I'm pretty sure that is how it gets its name.
#2: The technology is too confusing and setting up a headset is too time consuming.
First of all, if you can't figure out how to set up the headset, then you shouldn't be using a cellphone when you are driving anyway. If the "technology" is too advanced for you to figure out after reading the instructions or asking a teenager, then maybe you're too old to be using one in the first place. Go back to smoke signals.
#3: Who cares if I get caught? The fine is only $25 for the first offense.
Unfortunately, this is true and I can't make a good argument. The fine isn't high enough to make people "scared" of using their phones when they drive, nor is it high enough to make people stop from doing it a second or third time.
Heck, the Governor's wife chooses not to follow the rules, so why would any of you? Right?
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