King County taking aim at distracted drivers

This will last a week as a "feel good" mission....  Forgotten in a week.

It's about time. These fruit cakes are doing everything but watching their driving while putting on makeup, texting, talking on the cell phone, putting CD's in their player, yelling at the kids, brushing the dog in their lap and the list goes on. Drive the damn car and quit trying to do everything but. My ass is on the line if you aren't paying attention. Its bad enough with those big rigs sucking on my tail pipe they are so close without having to play dodgem with some damn fool that wants to shave.

Guess I can't eat Poodles while driving anymore. I'll miss my morning snack.

The real question is how does the county believe that this law can be enforced? If they are outlawing all eating while driving or talking while driving that would be one thing, but now they expect the police to be able to determine whether or not the driver's actions caused them to be inattentive drivers? Have they bothered to define what factors must exist that would make a driver be considered "inattentive"? This has legal clusterduck written all over it. Much like Montana's old "safe but prudent" speeding laws, you cannot enforce what is not clearly defined.

I didn't see "having a dog on your lap" as one of the offenses, but I wish it was. 

 

I followed a guy through stop-and-crawl driving through Bellevue one time and was amazed at how he veered from side-to-side in the lane...obviously distracted. This went on for 10-12 minutes until his girlfriend raised her head from his lap.

I wonder if the cop would have let her finish before writing the ticket. Better yet, I wonder what he'd write on the ticket.  :-D

This is a joke.

Drivers just need to refuse to cooperate like Snohomish County District Court Judge Timothy Ryan did to avoid his DUI charge.

"The unanimously-approved ordinance outlaws everything from talking to passengers to eating."  Honest officer, I saw a burglary in progress and was asking my passenger to call 911!   Also: Does this also mean no more talking hands free on a cellphone while driving?  Could be.

Having done the commute thing for many years now, I see some atrocious stunts pulled by drivers that either cause an accident, or in most cases a close call (because the other drivers were actually paying attention). What I would like to see is actual enforcement of the laws that are in place now -- talking on your cell phone, texting while driving, etc. Everybody says they can talk and drive at the same time -- well, truth be told, yes, they might be "driving", but they do stupid stuff like slow down, speed up, drift, try to change lanes at the last second because they weren't paying attention, etc.  

The ones putting on the make up are my biggest pet peeve. Good grief, get up 10 minutes earlier.

I know we have bad drivers but at least this is a secondary deal so they cannot try and pull you over just for that. Sheesh what's next the passenger cannot make eye contact with the driver while driving - seriously?

Its all about the money

Why are they waiting until 2013, start now and make the fine$500.

Make it a $500 fine, maybe people will get the hint the first time.

ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!

Talking and texting revenues alone could put most budgets in the black. Dodge these idiots everywhere I go. Almost hit by a guy looking at blueprints the other day. Then he flipped ME off.

Just another excuse not to chase the real bad guys, SPD motto protect and observe..

Papers please.

 

What ever ya do, don't cough, or God forbid, sneeze!

No more driving for diabetics. No munchy for you if ya start going into insulin shock.

And by all means, start putting yer kids in the trunk.

 

Just say WA.

I am SO GLAD I'm not a cop any more.

"Uuuh I'll be 10-6, my driver was talking to his passenger while pointing with his right hand, and I'm sure this vehicle is a manual, not an automatic..over."

How exactly could this be proven in a court of law? Video from a troopers car does not really show into the windshield. I would think you could fight it pretty easily.

 

How about the cops I see on their cell phones, or that fancy laptop to the right of them when driving that’s always on. Seems like a mighty big distraction to me. Can we issue each of the officers a ticket daily to?

They don't do anything now about distracted cell phone users!

This is ridiculous. While I'm very frustrated with how bad drivers have become (in Seattle, anyway), the situation could be improved with better enforcement of existing laws. A new law (that will be enforced as weakly as the others) does nothing at all. And failing to count this type of infraction on driving records makes is less useful anyway.

Isn't there like more IMPORTANT things they could be doing???

Another example of our government missing the mark my a mile.

 

How about educating drivers to the dangers of distracted driving so they can make better conscious driving decisions BEFORE they get behind the wheel? How about we take all of the money made from the inattentive driver tickets and spend that on increased education?

 

Also, they don't NEED this new law.  All they need to do is actually start pulling people over for failure to control their vehicle which happens all the time, but NEVER results in someone getting pulled over.  See that person on the cellphone tailgating and swerving in their lane? I do, but the police don't.

Police: License and registration please.

 

Driver: ......

 

Police: I said, License and registration!

 

Driver: Officer, it's against the law for me to talk while in my car.

 

Police: That's it, I'm writing you up for inattentive driving!  

 

 

This might be taking it abit too far but something has to be done. I see way way way too many people driving over the line as they come towards me, or as I follow them. Huh? I would not want to be a pedestrian or you would get run over. This is a BIG problem. I don't know what they are doing but when they cannot keep their car between 2 lines, then they need a ticket. I have mentioned this to the police several times. People still talk on the cell phone, why folks? Why? Is that phone call so dam important? Arrogance if you ask me. Pay attention out there or pay up!

That's a cute woman in the picture, that's why I clicked on this story to see a bigger picture

Don't be fooled in thinking that you will get the ticket on the street. This will be applied to you when you get to court to constest a real ticket, plea offer your speeding ticket etc down to a non-show up on your record ORD..inattentive driving. Good for the customer (insurance wise) to get the type of infraction changed and good for the County since its a ORD there owed Money to the State is drastically reduced and thus they get more of the cash flow and the state gets a very slim minority or the money...it's a old system that the cities have been using for years to keep more of the cash flow ffrom NOI's.

Talking to a passenger? Really...? Can I still sing along to the radio or laugh at something funny I see while driving? Come on, King County....

Just last evening, on 405 I came upon a slow driver with his bright Iphone screen on and attached to his visor. Twice, he toughed the icons. I've seen people literally reading 8.5 x11" pieces of printed paper, and a newspaper, leaning against their steering wheel while on a freeway; yesterday, I was almost rear-ended by a woman with her eyes turned downward as the traffic ahead slowed quickly and I inherently checked my rear view mirror. (I've been hit twice).

 

I've been eating in my car for 50 years with never a falter nor near miss. I've also been talking and singing in my car, for as long. So now big daddy wants us all to shut up and ignore our kids and passengers, don't eat that cracker, don't change the radio station, and don't look in our mirrors before we change lanes or watch the idiot tailgator behind us?

 

Next thing they'll think of of putting some sort a laser beam device in our windshields that tracks our every eye movement, then sends  a message to a big government tracking system, and we get a ticket in the mail.

 

There are obvious and dangerous distractions that drivers do, but eating and talking are not the ones. How about addressing smoking pot while driving?

Meh. I text in my lap.I could be doing a number of things down there. Way I look at it, divide the fine by all the times/infractions you didn't get caught, and it becomes pretty dismal. 

It will be easy to enforce. A police officer will notice erratic driving behavior. It's pretty obvious from the car's body language when the driver is distracted. The officer will then observe the source of the distraction. Again, pretty easy to see through the vehicles window, usually. When the distracted driver commits an infraction, such as wandering into the next lane, he or she wins two tickets for the price of one. 

 

Yeah, good luck at enforcing that since it's a secondary offense. I even have to laugh at them trying to get you for talking to passengers on a secondary offense. Guess the King County resources can't be that limited after all.