Illinnoying
Driving is one of those things cities and small towns need more laws to control to lessen the number of accidents on the road. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to take people’s cars away yet unless their blind and people usually like things like “driving” and “seeing.” But one Illinois village is taking safe driving to the next level…
WINNETKA, Ill. (UPI) — The Winnetka, Ill., police chief has proposed a “distracted driving” law that — among routine prohibitions — would also ban tuning the radio, a report said.
Police Chief Joseph DeLopez said his plan would outlaw radio tuning, talking to passengers and tending to children or pets while driving in addition to the more typical bans on using electronic devices, reading the newspaper or applying makeup.
“The issue runs deeper than the use of cell phones,” DeLopez wrote of his proposal, which was the result of a citizen panel.
Basically, this new law says the only thing you can do while driving a car is “drive the car you’re driving.” Depending on how you look at it, this is a dumb laws in one of two ways: (1) the Police Chief has to tell people what to do in their own cars and (2) we have to be told what to do in our own cars.
I’d like to see a ban on cell phone driving, something that’s slowly becoming as dangerous as drunken driving, CD changing and playing chicken with a speeding train. Maybe the issue does go deeper than just cell phones, but you don’t have to dive head first into the shallow end of the pool to get to the bottom of the problem.
And are police really going to enforce these laws and pull people over for changing the station on the radio or talking to someone sitting in the passenger seat? Don’t they know there are terrorists out there?