Drop and Drive | Blinq

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Monday, November 2, 2009

Drop and Drive

The light turns red and you glance down to see that someone has called or emailed.

Don't touch that phone.

The Philadelphia police started handing out warning notices this weekend, warming up the wired to the new rules that take effect Dec. 1 and will cost you between $75 and $300 if you're using the phone while behind the wheel.

Unless:

you've got a hands-free device.

you've pulled over to the side of the road and are not in gear.

you're a goverment official, doing business, and using the two-way radio.

The rules apply to skateboarders, in-line skaters, and bicyclists. Hands-free devices only.

Today's metro column goes into more detail. Already the e-mails have been interesting.

This came from someone's area-code 609 phone this morning. Please tell me they weren't driving.

It's gratifying to know that the distracted driver who kills me will be a bureaucrat on a 2-way radio. Priorities, right? Police, fire ok.

Posted by Daniel Rubin @ 10:24 AM Permalink | 5 comments

Comments

Posted 03:05 PM, 11/02/2009

mike c

Hey Dan, how about the police and fire personnel who use their cell phones, they getting tickets too??? I think not.

Posted 03:17 PM, 11/02/2009

word

This is ridiculous. When are we going to ban smoking or eating while driving. Both take a hand off of the steering wheel and are also distractions. We've been doing those two a lot longer than using cell phones. Just another way of getting into our pockets.

Posted 07:56 PM, 11/02/2009

rslitman

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend 1989, I got hit at high speed on the PA Turnpike by someone who was eating while driving. I am not enamored by all of those laws named for people, but if I had not had a car that was built to sustain these types of collision, perhaps a no eating law could have been named for me.

Comment removed.

Posted 07:50 PM, 11/03/2009

Blinq

5 comments

About Daniel Rubin

Since joining The Inquirer as a staff writer in 1988, Daniel Rubin has reported from 27 countries, but most of them were small. He's a metro columnist and has been the European Correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. For two years he sat at home and wrote Blinq, the paper's first daily blog. Now we make him come to work. Dan began newspaper work in Norfolk and Louisville, Ky., after getting his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northwestern University. He has lived in all four commonwealths, most recently in Pennsylvania. He teaches urban journalism at the University of Pennsylvania

Email Blinq here. Visit Blinq 1.0 here. My day job - Inquirer metro columnist - is here.

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