Gamertell

In October 2008, a Honolulu bus driver was suspended from duty for gaming on the job. On Wednesday Honolulu’s City Council passed a bill by a margin of 7-1 to ban texting and gaming while people are driving.

It’s a pretty good idea, though it did take some heat from local prosecutors and police officer who had argued that the ban would be nearly impossible to enforce. According to KHON-TV, Councilman Rod Tam, the one naysayer regarding the bill, said, “It’s a bad bill. It’s unenforceable.”

Charles Djou, the bill’s author, who had also spoken with police departments in cities where similar bans have been put in place, disagrees with Tam’s standpoint. This was also noted by KHON-TV. Due to his research while drafting up the bill, he found that the police departments of other cities had little, if any problem enforcing such a ban. He modeled the bill after California’s new law against texting while driving.

aimie Coffee of the California Highway Patrol noted that since they are trained in observing for the sake of their job they can tell when a person is distracted. Since July 2008, California Highway Patrol had issued about 55 thousand citations for cell phone use while driving. Since January 1, 2009, when the law against texting while driving, they’ve issued about 100 citations for texting while driving. It doesn’t seem like California is having much trouble enforcing the new law like the one that Honolulu’s City Council just passed.

Council Chair Todd Apo noted that while there were issues that could pop up on the law enforcement end but he believes that the law would be for the greater good. He is quoted by KHON-TV as saying, “We need to make sure our laws keep up with technology advancements.” The law has made it through to the stage where it could be vetoed now. The mayor has 10 days, or until Saturday, February 7 to review the law and to decide to veto it. If it is 10 business days, the mayor has until around Wednesday, February 11 to review and veto if necessary. If he chooses to do so the city council needs a vote of six to over-ride the veto.

If we need government to dictate common sense to us there is a much larger problem here. There’s no reason you should be splitting your attention anymore than it is while you’re driving anyway. You have to worry about everything and everyone in the vehicle with you, everything outside the vehicle and anything bad that could happen while you’re driving the vehicle. There’s no reason to divide your attentions further.

Read [KHON-TV] Also Read [Gamertell]