New Michigan Bill Could Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving
Distracted driving is the number one cause of car accidents and cell phone use definitely falls in that category. You're always seeing billboards and PSA's for not texting while driving and a potential bill in Michigan could take it to the next level.
Currently, it's against the law to text and drive in Michigan but MLive says that the Michigan House is considering passing a bill that would completely ban the use of cell phones while driving, unless it's being used hands-free such as a Bluetooth or speaker phone.
So what would be classified as "cell phone use?" Pretty much everything.
...conducting a search; viewing, taking, or transmitting an image or video; playing games; performing a command or request to access an internet page; and composing, sending, reading, viewing, accessing, browsing, transmitting, saving, or retrieving an e-mail message, text message, instant message or other electronic data."
In other words, just don't even think about looking at your phone if this bill passes. Not even if you're at a red light because that too will get you in trouble.
The proposed bill will include other electronics such as a GPS, laptops and pagers. Unless you're a doctor, or stuck in the past, I don't think the pager thing should really affect you. Obviously the leeway would be if someone is using their cell phone to report an accident or some type of an emergency. Law enforcement will also be excluded from this ban.
The bill states that first time offenders will get a $250 ticket. If pulled over for it again, you'll get slapped with a $500 fine and one point on your license.
The Detroit Free Press says that 15 states right now have a law in place that completely bans the use of any electronic device while on the road.