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Saturday, October 01, 2011

New State Laws Take Effect Today

Now illegal to read texts while driving

Effective today, it's illegal for a driver to read a text message, even while sitting at a red light

Also, employers may not consider an applicant's credit history unless there's a justifiable reason for doing so, and a court may order a convicted animal abuser not to live in a household that has animals.

These are but three of the roughly 300 bills - some of them identical House and Senate versions of the same legislation - that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. today.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about a Sex Offender living in a house with kids in it?!!
The Federal Government needs to stay out of our lives!!! When they pay my phone bill (I work for a living and no I do not work for the government) then they can tell me when to read my text messages!!!

Anonymous said...

It is simple to get around the texting law....get a magazine or newspaper and set it on the steering wheel, then text away.....the reality is that this is just another excuse for the police to pull people over and search them....what if you are using the gps (map) function on your phone while sitting at a red light? get pulled over for texting! What if you pull off to the side of the road to send a text? A cop comes along pulls up behind to see if you are OK and check your license, registration and insurance while there!

Anonymous said...

I think this is a stupid law. And, one that will be impossible to enforce CONSISTENTLY, without prejudice and profiling. The lawyers are going to have a field day with this one. Abusive police will use it as an excuse to illegally detain and search people and harrass them. Why don't police have to follow the same phone rules???

Anonymous said...

but applying makeup, eating, reading, etc are all still ok. thank goodness thought i was going to have to start paying attention while careening down rt 50!

Anonymous said...

your laws never bothered me before why should these?

Anonymous said...

Add driving with a pet on your lap to what anonymous listed above. Three hundred bills is outrageous. To say we are over taxed, over-legislated, and over-regulated, is mild at best. How many have big government dictating the minutest things in our lives? Government should stay out of our lives. It won't be long before they will be telling us when, how, much, and ? I am sure the meaning is clear here.

Anonymous said...

I wish they had a law against whining.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you're also not supposed to talk on hand held cell phones, but as I'm sitting at a red light, I see lots of people (mostly women) holding their cell phones and chatting away as they drive through the intersection.

Anonymous said...

@12:25 - Good point about the police having to follow the same rules. I don't know how many times I've sat at an intersection beside a cop and they are in their cars fidling with their built in laptops...hmmm. If at the end of the day a distraction is a distraction, then we should eliminate all radios, cd players, manual transmission cars, all passengers in a car except for the drivers. It's all bullocks.

Anonymous said...

Instead of placing laws like this into effect, I wish the federal government would just force the automobile manufacturers to install jamming devices on vehicles. When your vehicle is placed into drive, cell phones will not work in the vehicle, period.
This is the ONLY way to stop this dangerous activity!
Put your phone down for 1 week. Then, you'll be able to pay attention to those in front of you that are talking on their phones or texting! You don't see the dangers now, because YOU are doing the same thing!
Most of these are just as dangerous as a drunk driver. They are all over the road, slamming on brakes behind people because they didn't notice the traffic slowing or stopping, etc.!
My husband and I constantly are picking out drivers such as these. We'll say to each other "bet that one is on the phone or texting" and sure enough, we'll get beside them to pass them and guess what they're doing!
Law enforcement has not enforced the cell phone laws up to this point and they're not going to it seems.
Get off your phones when you're driving, you might live longer!