NYPD Cell Crackdown

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: 3:11 pm
March 13, 2009

NEW YORK - New York City police issued a whopping 9,016 tickets during a 24-hour crackdown on phoning-while-driving.

Department spokesman Paul Browne says that compares to 500 on a typical day.

The ticket blitz ended Friday. But the law is still the law.

Get caught driving while using a hand held phone and you could be fined $120.

Taxi drivers are held to an even higher standard. They can receive a $200 summons from the Taxi and Limousine Commission for using even a hands-free phone while driving.

The NYPD said hands-free phones were not a focus of its 24-hour crackdown.

Please come to Fort Wayne, please.......

Nice law, but I don't think we have enough police to actually make it effective.

Wonder how many of those tickets will be thrown out when thousands of people show up to the courts to fight them?

LTRT wrote:Please come to Fort Wayne, please.......

Totally agree.

Or else just repeal any law banning any use of any intoxicant while driving. The research is there and the risks are real.

http://wjz.com/national/nail.painting.accident.2.1001944.html

A woman painting her fingernails while driving is accused in a deadly crash with a motorcycle in northwest suburban Lake Zurich over the weekend.

Anita Zaffke, 56, died about an hour later after suffering apparent chest and abdominal injuries from being thrown from her Honda Shadow, Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said.

Lora Hunt, 48, is facing misdemeanor charges in the deadly motorcycle crash. Hunt had been painting her nails when the accident occurred, CBS station WBBM-TV reported.

Hunt wasn't arrested Saturday and was simply given a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

This story illustrates the problem with creating a law that applies strictly to one distraction while driving. I can have a few beers, go out driving yet paying full attention to the road, and get arrested and thrown in jail even if I didn't drive dangerously. Or I can be talking on a cell phone in New York and be fined $120 even if I don't feel distracted. Yet this woman kills a motorcyclist, throwing her 200 feet in the process, and gets a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

Markwes wrote:http://wjz.com/national/nail.painting.accident.2.1001944.html

A woman painting her fingernails while driving is accused in a deadly crash with a motorcycle in northwest suburban Lake Zurich over the weekend.

Anita Zaffke, 56, died about an hour later after suffering apparent chest and abdominal injuries from being thrown from her Honda Shadow, Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said.

Lora Hunt, 48, is facing misdemeanor charges in the deadly motorcycle crash. Hunt had been painting her nails when the accident occurred, CBS station WBBM-TV reported.

Hunt wasn't arrested Saturday and was simply given a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

This story illustrates the problem with creating a law that applies strictly to one distraction while driving. I can have a few beers, go out driving yet paying full attention to the road, and get arrested and thrown in jail even if I didn't drive dangerously. Or I can be talking on a cell phone in New York and be fined $120 even if I don't feel distracted. Yet this woman kills a motorcyclist, throwing her 200 feet in the process, and gets a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

I'll think she should be arrested and charged with manslaughter after the prosecutor gets hold of the info. I can understand why the officer didn't arrest her then and there.

meta4 wrote:

Markwes wrote:http://wjz.com/national/nail.painting.accident.2.1001944.html

A woman painting her fingernails while driving is accused in a deadly crash with a motorcycle in northwest suburban Lake Zurich over the weekend.

Anita Zaffke, 56, died about an hour later after suffering apparent chest and abdominal injuries from being thrown from her Honda Shadow, Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said.

Lora Hunt, 48, is facing misdemeanor charges in the deadly motorcycle crash. Hunt had been painting her nails when the accident occurred, CBS station WBBM-TV reported.

Hunt wasn't arrested Saturday and was simply given a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

This story illustrates the problem with creating a law that applies strictly to one distraction while driving. I can have a few beers, go out driving yet paying full attention to the road, and get arrested and thrown in jail even if I didn't drive dangerously. Or I can be talking on a cell phone in New York and be fined $120 even if I don't feel distracted. Yet this woman kills a motorcyclist, throwing her 200 feet in the process, and gets a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

I'll think she should be arrested and charged with manslaughter after the prosecutor gets hold of the info. I can understand why the officer didn't arrest her then and there.

I don't think she can be arrested anymore. The fact that she was not taken into custody and the fact that she was cited for the accident likely means that they cant prosecute her further.

I dont think cel phones while driving are the problem... it's people that don't pay attention that is the problem. I am able to use a cel phone and drive at the same time because i recognize that doing so requires significantly extra attention. That said, I dont choose to do it often, and when I do, I am disciplined enough to inconvenience my caller to put the phone down and drive if I am, say, merging...

There's one set of people that are too flighty to drive safely... there's another set of people that use cel phones... the fact that these two sets of people sometimes intersect is no reason to ban cell phones while driving.

Pez wrote:

meta4 wrote:

Markwes wrote:http://wjz.com/national/nail.painting.accident.2.1001944.html

A woman painting her fingernails while driving is accused in a deadly crash with a motorcycle in northwest suburban Lake Zurich over the weekend.

Anita Zaffke, 56, died about an hour later after suffering apparent chest and abdominal injuries from being thrown from her Honda Shadow, Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said.

Lora Hunt, 48, is facing misdemeanor charges in the deadly motorcycle crash. Hunt had been painting her nails when the accident occurred, CBS station WBBM-TV reported.

Hunt wasn't arrested Saturday and was simply given a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

This story illustrates the problem with creating a law that applies strictly to one distraction while driving. I can have a few beers, go out driving yet paying full attention to the road, and get arrested and thrown in jail even if I didn't drive dangerously. Or I can be talking on a cell phone in New York and be fined $120 even if I don't feel distracted. Yet this woman kills a motorcyclist, throwing her 200 feet in the process, and gets a ticket for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

I'll think she should be arrested and charged with manslaughter after the prosecutor gets hold of the info. I can understand why the officer didn't arrest her then and there.

I don't think she can be arrested anymore. The fact that she was not taken into custody and the fact that she was cited for the accident likely means that they cant prosecute her further.

Does anyone else think this is WAY too much discretionary judgment for an officer to be able to use at the time of an accident without further review?

This sends a strong message to motorcyclists, or cyclists of any kind.

I believe the prosecutor could still bring charges against her. Just because she got a ticket doesn't bring double jeopardy into play. However the family can definitely do a civil suit against her.

Too many studies have shown cell phone use is the equivalent of drunk driving. Much like the drunk they don't realize how bad they drive when using a cell phone. Then you throw in people who think they can text and drive, and you just multiply the problem.

http://www.nsc.org/resources/issues/factsheet.aspx