iPod Law Would Impose $100 Penalty For Crossing Street
Published by William Fletcher February 8th, 2007 in Tech.
If New York State Senator Carl Krugerhas his way, pedestrians will be fined $100 for the mere act of crossing the street while using a handheld gadget such asBlackBerrys, mobile phones, iPods, and DS Lites.
Kruger justified the proposed legislation by explaining: “You can’t be fully aware of your surroundings if you’re fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing ‘Super Mario Brothers’ on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod.”
There’s no hard evidence to back it up, but the State Senator claims that three pedestrians have been killed in the last six months while crossing the street using an iPod.
“This is an avoidable tragedy,” he said. “If you’re so involved in your electronic device that you can’t see or hear a car coming, this is indicative of a larger problem that requires some sort of enforcement beyond the application of common sense.”
Watch out Juicy Fruit chewers– your days of walking and chewing gummay be numbered.
Source: Newsday
If people are unintelligent enough to cross the street while distracted, that is a risk they are accepting. I don’t understand why the government feels the need to create legislation protecting you from yourselfl.
By the looks of the graphic on where everyone was, the pedestrian was already breaking the law. You have to cross at the crosswalk, right? So too bad that the ipodder was creamed. This idiot is no longer in the gene pool.
We don’t need a law. Natural selection will take care of the problem for us.
The sad thing is when an unintelligent person crossing the street while distracted gets run over and puts others in harms way. The street is not the place to be distracted, not only for the sake of the person crossing, not to mention the mental anguish that an innocent driver can go through after hitting someone with his car.
I think that the US is brilliant in their ability to concoct ways to dumb-down their citizens. Go the US!
Natural Selection at work. don’t mess with it.
we already do too much to protect the stupid from themselves. let’s not do any more and let nature handle things.
Absolutely insane, this sounds like a nanny state taking a step to far. Ban driving and get everyone to wear bubble wrap.
Seriously though, most of these problems should be dealt with by awareness campaigns.
Has anyone looked at #’s of pedestrians who use ipods? It may not be so statistically improbable that three pedestrians who have been in accidents HAPPENED to be listening to ipods. “Latte-drinking, ipod-listening, liberal sunz-a bit….., oh uh, yes Mr. President, I yield my time to the dis….”
Ok anyone else here learn when they were 3 to look both ways, My Son is 3 years old and he will stop look both ways and not cross if someone is coming. Should everyone in NY wear a Helmet in case of a person on an upper Floor dropping a glass off of their balcony, hey it might happen. I am so sick of Govt Telling me what to do and when to do it. Thanks to the leigons of american voters who elected people who want to tell us how to live. I forgot i was supposed to have a choice, silly me
If you’re not ‘fit’ to cross a street, one could call it natural selection, huh?!
People should (!) be smart enough and should be able to take responsibility in their own hands.
Let me think: speed limits, safety belts, smoking, safer sex.
Anyhow. Listening shouldn’t be an issue (otherwise deaf people wouldn’t be allowed to cross streets neither). Maintaining your play list while crossing a street may be problematic ;))
says: By the looks of the graphic on where everyone was, the pedestrian was already breaking the law.
Spoken like someone who has never been in an urban area in his life.
Watch out Blah, sounds like your next
* WAR IS PEACE
* FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
* IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
“Orwell, 1984″