CA Cell Phone Law: Are bluetooths causing it to work?

Prior to July 1st Californians were seen driving around with a handset to their ear, talking to clients, family members, friends, ordering take-out,checking out what movies are playing at AMC Theatre, and whoever else would listen to them yap... It was a way to pass the time while on the road. However, there were enough people in California that believed talking on cellphones without an earpiece delayed traffic and posed a safety threat due to individuals not having both hands free to manuever their vehicle. People yelled that used cellphones on the road and people yelled louder that were opposed and they yelled so loud that it became law, SB-1613, effective July 1st. If you are in California and talking on a cellphone while operating a motor vehicle, you'd better be sure that you are doing so using a hands-free device; such as a bluetooth, wired earpiece or a car kit. Otherwise you could wind up with a ticket of $20.00 for the first offence and $50.00 for each additional infraction.

The law has now been in effect for over 9-days and it may be too soon to make an informed assessment of the law ... but.... I do not believe that the law is effective in making our highways a safer place. There are still those people that have weighed the fee against the urge to yap and will continue flapping their lips against the handpiece no matter what. Others are dropping their bluetooth on the floor, trying to figure out how to increase the volume while turning an unfamiliar curve on the freeway and explaining to their child in the back seat how to change the dvd and listening to the GPS navigational device spew directions at random. In other words, I am saying, the cellphone law is too little too late, we already have an extreme amount of destractions in the car for this one to make that much of a difference. The prevailing questions in my mind is, does SB-1613 accomplish what the masterminds believed it would? Are Californians more alert drivers now or are they now having wrecks because they are trying to get their bluetooth/car kit or wired earpiece to work? Is the consquence of just $20.00 costly enough to detour young drivers/experienced drivers from holding a phone to their ear? I do quite a bit of driving in my line of work and have personally "spotted" 21 drivers holding their cell phone to their ear. Wowzers! Not to mention the people that the CHP has "caught" according to the LA Times ... or are they stretching things just to have an excuse to pull people over. Are we tempting the integrity of our CHP Officers by giving them the power to pull over drivers with wild accusations? I seem to remember a similar delimma that California went through a few years back regarding the "seat belt" law - click it or ticket. It went through a few revisions as to when the CHP could issue a ticket for that infraction. It was debated that they could not pull you over just for not having a seat belt on but if they happen to pull you over and you didn't have your seat belt on then the officer could also cite you for that infraction. Then we changed and said that an officer could pull you over and we went back and forth with it. Those people who refuse to wear there seatbelts invaribly while being pulled over will take the shoulder/lap harness and pull it across their body in order to avoid a ticket. History seems to be repeating itself with the cellphone law... people are already thinking of arguments to get out of the ticket... loop holes that are not covered by the law, etc. The bottom line is that safety must be in the minds of individuals for laws to work. Otherwise we are just playing a highstakes game of hide and seek.

According to latest statistics reported the CHP has not found as many violators as many thought they would have. The first two weeks after the law went into effect July 1st, they have only issued 2500 tickets for handset usage while driving; Another interesting discovery is of those 2500 tickets issued only 25 tickets were issued to drivers under the age of 18. Somehow I thought the numbers would be a lot higher... but it just further proves what I and some of you have commented from the start - cell phones are not the only distraction for drivers in a car.