Hands On the Wheel & Off the Phone

In 2006, nearly half of the phone-related crashes in New Jersey involved a hands-free devices or cellphones. 5 of those accidents were fatal. The danger of talking or texting while driving is gaining more national concern as thousands of people learn the hard way how dangerous it is to multi-task on the road. This weekend New Jersey joins four other states in making it an offense to text while driving.

No text messages or calls for NJ drivers

By: Brad Haynes

Associated Press Writer

March 1, 2008

For New Jersey drivers, the message is clear: Keep your thumbs on the wheel and off the keypad.
Beginning Saturday, police can slap drivers with a $100 fine for talking or sending a text message on hand-held devices.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.
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....
Driving while using a hand-held cell phone has been illegal in New Jersey since 2004, when the state became the second in the nation to pass a ban. However, it was considered a secondary offense — something drivers could be ticketed for if they were pulled over for another reason. Over the past year, state courts have recorded 16,000 tickets issued for the offense....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080301/ap_on_re_us/cell_phone_ban;_ylt=AqARcyW.J3wpPKZ2bbTKiiGs0NUE

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