TechnoWeenie wrote:leadcounsel wrote:TechnoWeenie wrote:leadcounsel wrote: And a person would probably have to demonstrate he was not using his phone.
1. Kinda hard to prove a negative.
2. Presumption of innocence, how does that work again?
Cop has RAS or PC to believe driver committed an infraction. Impounds phone pending search warrant.
Can also subpoena phone records.
Do you really want to play that game? Doubt it.
Or you can admit you did it, take the fine, and get on with your day a more responsible person not putting the public in jeopardy because you're checking Tinder.
Thank you for showing why more gov't is never the answer...
Next thing you know, they'll start taking ALL phones as 'evidence' during a distracted driving stop, then search it, then declare what a great tool it is to get drug dealers, etc off the street.... Pretext stops... now gonna be used to start searching phones... way to go...
Good thing pretext stops are illegal in WA...
Blah blah blah. So the alternative is to continue to let drivers on their phones and texting kill tens of thousands of people in car accidents annually? Go look at car accident photos. They are horrific.
Driving is taken far too casually. Yeah, you have rights and freedoms in this nation. But one of them isn't do drive like a sociopath self centered asshole putting hundreds of people's lives and their loved ones' lives at risk while on the roads.
Do you also condone drugged or drunk driving, and is that a person's "right" in your book?
http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/traffic-deadliest-year/by Kirsten Korosec
2016 data shared Wednesday from the National Safety Council estimates that as many as 40,000 people died in motor vehicles crashes last year, a 6% rise from 2015. If those numbers bear out, it would be a 14% increase in deaths since 2014, the biggest two-year jump in more than five decades.
It also means that 2016 may have been the deadliest year on U.S. roads since 2007, the NSC says.Crashes result in the very real cost of human life. But there are also millions more who are seriously injured—an estimated 4.6 million in 2016 according to NSC—and a financial cost to society as well. NSC estimates the cost of motor-vehicle deaths, injuries, and property damage in 2016 was $432 billion, a 12% increase from the previous year. Those costs include losses in wages and productivity, medical expenses, property damage, employer costs and administrative expenses, the NSC says.
So, irresponsible distracted driving kills over 1000 people per day, injures 12,000 per day, and causes 1/2 trillion in property damage annually, much of that absorbed by you and me - people who pay insurance premiums.
Being on your phone and driving is a leading cause of distracted driving. I've had enough of it. It's not the boogyman you think it is. It's not akin to drinking a water, or changing a radio station. I've been in the car or otherwise seen people who are texting/talking while driving and they literally are looking at everything except the road for long periods. I've also watched other cars veer quite outside of normal traffic patterns while clearly texting and driving.
If not police, who would you like to monitor traffic? Are you suggesting a form of "self help?" So, like, if someone murders your wife because of negligent driving, you just go assassinate them for it? Or, do you think maybe a more 'proactive' approach like shooting distracted drivers is the answer? You seem to complain a LOT about police and law enforcement, but never offer to go do the job or offer any solutions. What is your SOLUTION to distracted drivers?
Mine is MASSIVE fines on a first instance followed by revocation of driving privileges thereafter.
I'm tellin!