Update: Read Paul Payne's follow-up story about the court ruling here. If you're using your cell phone to get directions or play music while you're driving, you're breaking the law. That's the ruling released Monday by a Fresno County appeals court. After considering People v. Spriggs, the three-judge Superior Court [...]
Santa Rosa Police Officer Jeff Adams waited on his motorcycle, tucked in an out-of-the-way spot, as he watched traffic go by at Santa Rosa Avenue and Third Street. The intersection this week is getting extra attention from the city's motorcycle officers because it's one of a couple of dozen intersections [...]
With so many drivers ignoring the cell phone law, some cell phone companies are devising technology to help. The technology would detect when a cell phone was in a car and would temporarily interrupt service. The New York Times reported today that T-Mobile this week announced a service that, for [...]
For me, the cell phone law for drivers makes people watching even more interesting. The other day I was at a red light downtown and noticed the woman in the brown minivan next to me waving her hands. She clearly was deep in a heated conversation, gesturing and apparently yelling. [...]
Here's my Christmas wish list for all of us who drive: 1. That everyone always use their blinkers when switching lanes or turning. Besides being the law, it's just plain nice to give me some warning before you suddenly move into my lane. 2. That Caltrans finally raises the speed [...]
What's the biggest safety problem on California's road? Speeding and aggressive driving, according to a survey of drivers by the state Office of Traffic Safety. What's the most serious distraction for drivers? Cell phone conversation, whether handheld or hands free, by far was No. 1 at 59.5 percent. Despite that [...]
California drivers are a creative bunch, especially it seems when they're trying to ignore the hands-free cell phone law. You see some drivers holding their cell phone in their right hand, rather than their left, perhaps hoping that a passing police officer won't see it. Some hold the phone several [...]
CHP officers out of the Santa Rosa office wrote 29 tickets for cell phone violations during Wednesday's crackdown on drivers, while CHP and other police agencies across the Bay Area issued a whopping more than 1,600 citations. On Aug. 10 -- the first day of the two-day crackdown --local officers [...]
The CHP and some Bay Area police departments are participating today in a second crackdown on drivers who illegally use cell phones. The law requiring drivers to go hands-free when using cell phones easily is one of the most ignored laws in the state. Plus holding a cell phone while [...]
A state senator has failed in his effort to require bicyclists to stop using hand-held cell phones and to double fines for motorists who don't go hands-free. Legislation by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, passed the state Senate in June but it got bottled up in the Assembly Appropriations [...]