Texting While Driving Could Get More Expensive
A local lawmaker is pushing to make getting caught texting while driving a much more expensive and penal offense.
Legislators have sent a bill from state Senator Joe Simitian of Palo Alto to Governor Jerry Brown. The measure would increase fines for motorists who use cell phones without a hands-free device or who text while driving. A subsequent violation of either law would add a point on a motorists’ driving record.
Under the bill, a first offense would cost $50 and subsequent offenses $100 (those fines are currently $20 and $50 respectively). With penalties and fees, the total cost for a first offense would increase from roughly $189 to approximately $309.
“While the numbers show that compliance is good and that California’s hands-free law is working, we can do better and save even more lives,” Simitian said in a statement after the bill passed the legislature.
The measure would also apply the rules to bicyclists, who were omitted from the original law. They would face lower penalties – $20 for a first offense and $50 thereafter.
Photo Credit: Alton, via Wikimedia Commons
Book’em Dano! Even these proposed fines are ridiculously low. Double the amount again, where you expect to pay about $300 for a first offense. We have to take a similar attitude as we did with drunk driving. Attitudes were lax until the law got more hardcore.
It’s insane, that people texting is causing drivers to run people down, doing all kinds of stupid crap, because they can’t pull their head out of their idiotic little cloud.