Ignore Cell Phone Ban at Your Peril
Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under Law, Los Angeles, News, misdemeanor |
Many Californians seem blase about the new cell-phone ban poised to go into effect next week on July 1. The threat of a $20 misdemeanor fine won’t be enough to force some people to either ignore their cell phones or make an investment in hands-free Blue Tooth technology. But motorists who ignore the law could find themselves facing huge civil judgments and even prison if cell phone use is linked to a traffic fatality.
“If you cause a fatal accident, and you are running a stop sign, speeding or crossing a double line, any additional violation would add to the possibility a manslaughter charge could be filed,” warned W. Scott Thorpe, chief executive of the California District Attorneys Association. “It all goes to state of mind and your recklessness.”
If you’ve ever driven behind someone gabbing away on their cell phone, you’re well aware of the traffic dangers caused by inattentive drivers. Anything you do while driving distracts you from what’s happening on the road. We Americans do some crazy things behind the wheel: talking on the phone, texting, eating, sticking a CD in the radio, rooting around the backseat, putting on makeup, shaving, disciplining the kids, trying to retrieve the quarter you dropped at the toll booth, reading maps, programming the GPS, changing clothes — you name it and we’re doing it — and all at 80 mph on the freeway! Any time you take you attention off the road or try to split your attention, your risk of causing an accident increases. Despite what we would like to believe, our brains just aren’t that good at multi-tasking.
In Los Angeles County alone, dozens of sober but negligent drivers cause traffic fatalities each year. When their inattention to the road maims or kills someone they may face vehicular manslaughter charges. While a cell phone violation during a fatal car accident might not trigger a murder charge, arrest for vehicular manslaughter is likely, Thorpe said. If convicted of vehicular manslaughter you could be sentenced to up to one year in jail for each death. But penalties could be much steeper given California’s tough legal climate.
“If somebody kills three kids in an intersection and they were on a cell phone at the time, I can see the driver being charged with a felony,” said law professor Stanley Goldman of Loyola Law School-Los Angeles. He noted that studies show talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk. If you drive in California, be warned. You might want to turn of your cell phone when you get in your car.
-LegalPro
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