Felony texting while driving

mkwerx · Jan 3, 2017

Peter Courtney is f'ing insane:

Distracted driving could mean prison under new bill

He is introducing a bill this year to make using a cell phone while driving a felony - treating it worse than DUII.

Courtney feels making texting and driving a felony is a step int he right direction. Under his bill, using a mobile device while driving could get you a year in prison and the fine would be raised from $500 to more than $6,000. Multiple violations could get you 5 years in prison and a $125,000 fine.

"I'm shooting [for] the moon here," Courtney said.

If I driver were pulled over for texting and driving, whether or not they caused an accident, they would be cited.

"They get cited, it's over," Courtney said. "You get pulled over for drunk driving you may have not have hit anybody but if you violate, same thing."

Courtney expects opposition to the bill, but hopes some portions of it will become law.

"I'm hoping to at least get a major fine increase," he said.

Because we don't have more crap to worry about in Oregon, and because they need more people in prison over stupid crap. I'm all for enforcing the law - but enforcing the distracted driving laws already on the books. We don't need tougher laws, we don't need more laws. Hell, we really need less laws and more personal responsibility. Some of us CAN actually frickin' multitask. We shouldn't be facing a felony because a bunch of retards cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

IF this crap passes, you bet your britches there will be exemptions for police and government officials. Cops are horrible drivers when they're not in pursuit mode. They are constantly distracted, and if you watch a police car long enough, you'll see them weaving, failing to maintain their lane, and tailgating because the cop is messing around on his phone, reading from his MDT, or otherwise looking about. If they force it on the citizens, they should force it on the cops - but they won't.

I guess the pot they are passing around in Salem must be laced with some other wicked chemicals. But hey - they'll get to screw a whole slew of gun owners over with this BS if it passes, and you can loose your gun rights and voting rights because you got caught reading a text while driving. Meanwhile the asshat who is out there driving with a .14 BAC is only facing a class A misdemeanor if he's busted, unless he kills someone.

Diamondback · Jan 3, 2017

Police-state Fascists gonna Police-state Fascist.

Camelfilter · Jan 3, 2017

If this were to pass, time for us to get another dashcam, this one pointing at the vehicle interior...CYA!

Certaindeaf · Jan 3, 2017

Instead of "Let's see your papers." it'll be "Let's see your cell phone.".
I propose we do just that, starting with government workers.. city officials, teachers, police.. check their phones for 1/2 hour before and after their shifts and throw in mandatory drug tests while you're at it. And then fire them all.
It'll be a start anyway

HuckleberryFun · Jan 3, 2017

I see people on the road all the time texting, talking, or fiddling with their phones. I hate it. I see them weave, almost hit things or people, or (my pet peeve) not notice the left turn arrow has gone green until it's stale then taking off as it turns red to leave those behind them to wait for the next cycle. For the last offense I favor waterboarding. Much as it irks me I dont want yet another law on the books, or felony punishments.
Waterboarding or mild torture is fine.

notazombie · Jan 3, 2017

So can we expect a full exemption for police officers? I can't count how many times I've seen them talking on cell phones (yes, held up to their ears) not to mention the constant fiddling with their consoles/laptops. Sorry, if I can't do it they shouldn't be able to either.

etrain16 · Jan 3, 2017

And yet the voters in his district will continue to send that waste of O2 back to office, over and over and over again. When will people get their heads out of their a$$es? The longer you let these people stay in office, the more it empowers them to believe they can pull off ridiculous laws like this. I wonder how many anti-gun m-fer's, who are all too happy to pass laws that hurt gun owners, will not appreciate this restriction being forced on their lives...

No doubt the legislators will be exempt from this new law - anyone want to bet me on that one?

HuckleberryFun · Jan 3, 2017

etrain16 said:
And yet the voters in his district will continue to send that waste of O2 back to office, over and over and over again. When will people get their heads out of their a$$es? The longer you let these people stay in office, the more it empowers them to believe they can pull off ridiculous laws like this. I wonder how many anti-gun m-fer's, who are all too happy to pass laws that hurt gun owners, will not appreciate this restriction being forced on their lives... No doubt the legislators will be exempt from this new law - anyone want to bet me on that one?

Betting is illegal.

Mikej · Jan 3, 2017

HuckleberryFun said:
I see people on the road all the time texting, talking, or fiddling with their phones. I hate it. I see them weave, almost hit things or people, or (my pet peeve) not notice the left turn arrow has gone green until it's stale then taking off as it turns red to leave those behind them to wait for the next cycle. For the last offense I favor waterboarding. Much as it irks me I dont want yet another law on the books, or felony punishments.
Waterboarding or mild torture is fine.

This ^^ is where I'm at! We don't have a traffic problem in PDX, we have an rotten driver problem. This felony for texting/talking while driving is BS, but I say you get in an accident because you are texting, 5 years prison! You kill somebody, or seriously injure, 10+ years.

I don't get what happened between the drivers of my generation and the last two generations? My generation drove to get somewhere, not drive to be on the phone all the time! Showing no concern for the people around them.

DB is Here · Jan 3, 2017

Texting while driving can be dangerous...So can putting on your make-up and I've seen countless women try to steer with their knees and with one hand hold the mirror, with the other hand apply make-up. It's a crazy world. LOL

fxdc · Jan 3, 2017

No prison.....
Very heavy 1st offense fines MANDATORY.

A large jump for 2nd offense double the 1st one.

But no prison... unless a fatality.

Member 5605 · Jan 3, 2017

Just another way for them to strip your rights...

Larrytpdx · Jan 3, 2017

HuckleberryFun said:
I see people on the road all the time texting, talking, or fiddling with their phones. I hate it. I see them weave, almost hit things or people, or (my pet peeve) not notice the left turn arrow has gone green until it's stale then taking off as it turns red to leave those behind them to wait for the next cycle. For the last offense I favor waterboarding. Much as it irks me I dont want yet another law on the books, or felony punishments.
Waterboarding or mild torture is fine.

I see them reading books and newspapers too! Maybe not a jail-able felony for the first offense but something has to be done! It's become epidemic.

PiratePast40 · Jan 3, 2017

Curious as to how this affects use of GPS. Even if it's built into the dash, you still need to touch the screen several times to activate and input a destination. If it's a stand alone GPS, or your phone, you still need to make the same inputs. Phones accept voice input, but you still need several touches to open the app.

HuckleberryFun · Jan 3, 2017

I'm a ham radio operator. I have a radio in my car. I know that two way radios are, so far, exempt from these distracted driving laws. The way I understand it: federal law prohibits (?) states from passing anti-radio-while-driving laws even if they wanted to because that is federal turf. So your 2-meter or CB radios are safe for now. Just pay attention, OK?

mkwerx · Jan 3, 2017

PiratePast40 said:
Curious as to how this affects use of GPS. Even if it's built into the dash, you still need to touch the screen several times to activate and input a destination. If it's a stand alone GPS, or your phone, you still need to make the same inputs. Phones accept voice input, but you still need several touches to open the app.

I use my phone as my GPS - because Google Maps is far more accurate than the last couple Garmin units I've used, and it includes Waze traffic for free. Google's voice-to-text is lack luster at best, so even though I could theoretically use speech commands to enter (this could be covered in an entirely different thread about privacy invasion, you can use your voice to activate the phone instead of having to touch the screen because the damn thing is always listening for key phrases...) - the Star Trek like voice recognition simple is not there yet. speech to text is still pretty hit & miss - especially with shorter words that have very similar sounding words. And god forbid you're trying to enter a one or two digit number for the address. An example - 776 C Avenue - google could *not* recognize that one. It also cannot seem to recognize the word "tow".

It's a power grab by nanny staters plain and simple. Personally I don't think it should be a primary offense - that is one that can get you pulled over. Seat belt violations *used* to not be primary offenses. Then the state decided it wanted more cash, and more ability to force itself into your life, so they made it a primary violation thus allowing the police to stop you for no seat belts.

That said - I am all for high fines *IF* your distracted driving leads to you to crash into something or someone. But at that point it can be argued that even the distracted driving offense can be turned into wreckless driving, which is already a crime and not an infraction. Same if you strike someone - if they die you get popped for manslaughter/negligent homicide.

The whole anti-cell phone while driving thing is BS to begin with, because there are and were already laws about distracted driving on the books that the police never frickin enforce. Making one kind of distraction a separate offense is stupid, but certainly grows the traffic code and the ORS even fatter, thus ensuring that "we the people" won't know all the crap that governs our daily lives and allows for the government to bend us over at their whim.

It's also illegal to leave your vehicle idling in oregon without you attending to it, but the statute is so vague as to not specifically define what "attending" to it means. And the reason for this nanny-law? To prevent you from creating a condition where your vehicle is more easily stolen. It's a victim blaming law. It's still illegal for Joe Dirt to hop into your ride and make off with it, but if they catch Joe Dirt and he says "yeah man, the keys were in it and it was running" then the cops can turn around and slap you with a $6500 fine. For having your car stolen.

That's like slapping a rape victim with a fine because she was wearing a short skirt and high heels before getting raped. Stupid.