New Jersey Wants ANY Distracted Driving To Be A Crime Just Like Cell Phone

Get Ready For ALL Of Us To Become Criminals

By Robert Gehl on November 26, 2013 Subscribe to Robert Gehl's Feed

How far will the Nanny State go? How about banning eating and smoking while driving?

One method the left has of achieving equality is to make everybody a criminal, right? To wit:

A bill currently in the New Jersey assembly would make it illegal to “engage in any activity unrelated to the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle.”

The bill passed committee unanimously; despite not spelling out specifically which activities would not be considered distracting.

Eating, smoking, adjusting the radio, putting on makeup, looking at a map, picking your nose. – all these are potentially distracting.

Penalties would be the same for cellphone use, which is banned $200 for the first offense, $400-$600 for the second offense and $600-$800 for the third offense. Licenses could be suspended after the third offense.

Steve Carrellas, New Jersey representative of the National Motorists Association, told the Newark Star Ledger the proposal is too vague.

“I can’t adjust the radio anymore? I can’t change the CD? I can’t look at a map?” he said. “This is a whole set of undefined behavior that someone could perform in the car that could be considered not driving.”

Added Carrellas: “It’s behavior as opposed to outcome. The behavior can result in a bad outcome, but there’s no guarantee that’s the case. But what I’ll applaud him on is for trying to figure out how to deal with distracted driving.”

Being a parent of two small children, I can tell you that having them simply in the car is more distracting than any other activity. Would speaking with them – or even paying attention to them – be considered distracting.

Ridiculous.