(November 12, 2020 at 2:02 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: A recent news story reported that a woman in Melbourne was fined $496 and four demerit points for using her mobile while driving (she’s actually got a fairly good defense that she was holding an ice cream and not a phone). Had the offense occurred in Queensland, she would have been fined $1000.
I was fairly well shocked, since the penalty for doing that here is just $80 and 20 points. But it got me curious. What are the distracted driving restrictions and penalties where you live, and do you think they should be more or less severe?
Boru
Even in America those "distracted driving" laws vary from state to state as well as fines. So distracted driving can contain use of cell phone in some states, or or just texting, but not hands free cell. Other states can include eating too, depending on what the officer observes and how much you take your eyes off the road.
I'd guess in any case, what an officer observes is swerving or drifting out of your lane. They pull you over, and maybe the first thing they think is you might be drunk, but standard, first question everyone knows is, "Do you know why I pulled you over"? Most people say, "no". Officer says, "you were swerving, or drifting out of the lane". Then maybe, MAYBE, the driver says, " I dropped my food" or "My smoke" or "my cd" or "my cell", and at that point the officer may charge them with distracted driving. But again, laws very from state to state.
But in general, anything that takes your eyes off the road, even changing the radio station, or lighting a smoke, or even turning to talk to your passenger, all that has the potential to take your eyes off the road and get into an accident.
Even without that, the faster you go, the longer it takes for your vehicle to slow down. Which is also why I fucking hate tailgaters.
