California Bill To Limit Drivers' Cell-Phone Use Fails

As California appeared closer to becoming the second state (after NY) to ban mobile phone use (without a hands-free kit) in car, someone changed the bill, making it apply to all sorts of driver distractions, upsetting the bill's original author and ultimately killing it. The original author plans to reintroduce it early next year. The revised bill said the issue shouldn't be mobile phones in cars, but general driver distractions - and pushed for police to stop any erratic drivers and stop them from engaging in whatever distraction appeared to be causing the problem. The bill's author complained that his bill had a real solution to the problem by requiring hands-free kits, but there are no "hands-free hamburgers". Of course, that ignores the point that hands-free kits apparently do very little to improve drivers' attention skills when on the phone.