JoeyBike

I am sure some here will enjoy this video...

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cc2_1418624275 LiveLeak.com - Covert Police Motorcycles Catching Drivers Using Mobile Phones

delcrossv

Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Chris516

Police in the U.S. don't seem to care about that law. Until someone gets' killed.

badrad

Loved that last one - officer says: "You had no idea what's going on around you ma'am!"

genec

Now why would they do that... as ILTB will tell you, there are no statistics that show any connection between cell phone use and traffic or collision issues. Gee, seems a real waste of taxpayer monies. All there are are a bunch of "dumb studies."

Loved that last one... "no idea what was going on around you... " That says it all.

unterhausen

I've been driving a lot over the last year, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the weird driver behavior I witness on the road is phone related. I don't usually look because I'm too busy driving, but when I had a passenger on a recent trip, he reported that a significant number of my fellow drivers were texting away.

Altair 4

+1. If they ran that around here, that cop would be the single largest profit center for the state.

KD5NRH

Like any of the others do? Look at the video: not one of them even knows which side of the road to drive on or which side of the car to drive from.

Keith99

My commute to work is on the freeway and my offramp happens to be the first one coming off a hill, going down. About once a month there will be a driver in the right hand lane going 50 or so and on the cell phone or texting. Painfully obvious and obstructing traffic.

sooner or later I'll time it right and see a CHP nab one of them. CHP is not kind about thatkind of stuff.

Bizman

A great video! This should be sent to police depts here in the states as maybe they haven't thought of doing something like this? The cell phone craze has gone wild and out of control, to many people getting hurt or worse (killed).

daihard 

This is awesome. Thank you!

auldgeunquers

Well, now I know what job I want when I grow up!

Number400

Love it. I like that Officer. Here, you would not even need an MC, just need a Policeman standing on the corner. People around here don't even wait until they are fully stopped before texting. Got to get the most of out of the internet before the light turns green.

JonnyHK 

While I agree that drivers should get tickets for using phones while *driving* I do feel sorry for most of the people who are pinged by this cop while they are stationary.

The traffic light is red, so you are sitting there. You check your phone quickly because it beeped a little while back and you didn't touch it while you were driving. Cop rolls past when you are checking phone - BAM - expensive ticket.

Net result - a lot of these drivers who were stationary will not get the genuine road safety message and will just think the cops are being a-holes and hitting them with unfair and costly tickets.

prathmann

Agreed. I suspect the message that's received in such cases is to do the quick check of the phone while going 40+ mph when traffic is more spread out instead of waiting until stopped at a traffic light.

I-Like-To-Bike

I suspect that neither "dumb studies" nor statistics will ever show any connection between cell phone use while the vehicle is stationary and traffic accidents, and even less of a nexus with bicyclist injuries. It is not surprising that enforcement as shown whould excite those who get hysterical over any use of a cell phone anywhere and/or think every traffic accident must somehow be a result of the presence of a cell phone.

Shimagnolo

I was at an intersection with 4-way stop signs one day. When it was my turn, I started across the intersection...and the moron to my right, (who had arrived *after* me), suddenly stomped the gas, and shot across the intersection, missing me by 18". He had a glassy-eyed, unfocused straight-ahead stare and was yammering on a cellphone pressed to his head.

He never saw me, and has no idea this even happened.

So I have no trouble at all with that bike-cop ticketing drivers who are stopped.

DirePenguin

Yeah, I really find it hard to believe that ALL of those drivers only started looking at their phones when they were safely stopped at the light.

genec

Ah... if only people ONLY used cell phones while stationary... sigh. But that just isn't the case is it? Frankly I have no problem with folks using their phones while their foot is firmly on the brake. It is rampant cell phone use while folks are moving that causes me concern.

As has been shown before... even train operators using cell phones can be the cause of collisions.

I-Like-To-Bike

But giving tickets to drivers who ARE stationary while using cell phones IS what the video is all about, isn't it?
Seems equivalent in risk reduction to giving tickets to cyclists who don't make a full stop at stop signs at intersections with no other traffic present.

I-Like-To-Bike

It is ironic that anyone, especially the OP, who holds such a view (no harm, no foul violations should be no ticket) goes into spasms of joy over this type of law enforcement, i.e "easy pickings" of motorists causing no safety problem.

Shimagnolo

I see you missed post 17.

spivonious

That was a fun video to watch. I wish cell phone use while driving was banned here in PA. The best they could get through was banning typing on a mobile device while the vehicle is in motion. So it's perfectly fine to read emails while driving, you just can't write one. A totally worthless law.

If the law was different and the police tried to do what the video shows, they would be run out of town. People got upset when it was proposed to let local cops use radar guns (currently only state police can use them).

Number400

If the law is in the books there then the drivers are in the wrong. Does not matter who agrees or disagrees with the law in the first place. Agree with Spivonious that the real problem with our PA texting law is that it says you can do x but not z on the same device.
Many motorists out there just don't give a poop about anyone else, period.

El Cid

Maybe a new law to ban cell phones isn't needed. A few years back, Toronto Police charged a man with impaired driving -- a criminal offence -- after he mowed down a few pedestrians while talking on his phone. I'll bet PA has criminal laws that could be used. Not only impaired driving but any type of negligence or endangerment law.