Proposed paragraph (b) of Illinois House Bill 71:
"A person may not operate a motor vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device to compose, send, or read an electronic message."
"A person may not operate a motor vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device to compose, send, or read an electronic message."
This bill already passed the House 89-27 and now awaits a vote in the Senate.
Click here for the full text of the bill.
Click here for the full text of the bill.
7 comments:
It definitely creates an opportunity for there to be safer roads to drive on.
However I wonder how this will be enforced? It seems it would be more of a hassle for police officers to look for. I could see critics arguing that it would waste police officers' time to have to pull over those they spot on cell phones who may be text messaging.
Indiana recently passed a similar bill, but it only restricts those under 18 from talking or texting on cell phones while driving.
Plus, how is texting different than dialing a cell phone, which is still legal?
One flaw I see in the definition of "Electronic Message" is "a self-contained piece of digital communication that is designed or intended to be transmitted between physical devices."
I have GPS on my blackberry. Argument could be made that my GPS program would fall under this definition. Not to mention the definition of "Electronic communication device" is somewhat broad too. It could arguably include stand alone GPS devices such as Garmine.
Is reading a map on a GPS device reading an electronic message?
Good point Matt, my iPhone does the same.
http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2009/05/14/sometimes-the-sausage-making-makes-sense/
This is a stupid law. The law will only catch those people that are dumb enough to admit they were texting. How can someone tell if you are texting or not. What? Are they going to subpoena phone records?????
Look, I love texting while driving . . . so to make it illegal would be really annoying.
Post a Comment