As you guys from NJ must know by now from the digital signs flashing the warning you to put the cell phone down starting March 1. I bet they can’t wait to start collecting that new revenue. I bet they have a quota that they’re looking to fill to get money into the cash strapped budget.
For New Jersey drivers, the message is clear: Keep your thumbs on the wheel and off the keypad.
New Jersey joins four other states, including neighboring New York, where talking on a hand-held cell phone is reason enough to get pulled over. The Garden State is the first where text-messaging on the road is a primary offense, meaning police need no other reason to pull a driver over, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Beginning Saturday, police can slap drivers with a $100 fine for talking or sending a text message on hand-held devices.
Pam Fischer, director of New Jersey’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety, said officers will be on the lookout for telltale signs of distracted drivers – slow driving and the “cell-phone weave.”
Drivers can still use their cell phones to contact police or emergency services, and can talk at any time with a hands-free device. But crash statistics suggest that those headsets and earpieces may not make conversations in the car any safer.