Your car is not your living room, says NJ lawmaker
You've seen them on the roadway: motorists driving while grooming, eating, reading the newspaper, checking email on a laptop, or turning the music dials.
You've seen them on the roadway: motorists driving while grooming, eating, reading the newspaper, checking email on a laptop, or turning the music dials.
A New Jersey lawmaker wants to crack down on distracted driving under a proposed bill that seeks to stop motorists from multitasking when they get behind the wheel.
"We have slowly but surely made our cars into extensions of our living room," Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D., Middlesex) said in an interview Monday. "As a consequence, we have people engaging in conduct that was never intended for a motor vehicle moving at 40 or 50 mph.
"I've driven down the turnpike a number of times and seen people reading a newspaper folded on the steering wheel or working on their laptop in the passenger seat," he said.
If passed, the bill would impose a fine of up to $400 for a first-time offender, up to $600 for a second violation, and a fine up to $800 and a 90-day license suspension and motor vehicle points for subsequent offenses.
"The goal of this legislation is to get drivers to not to be distracted, pay attention to the road," Wisniewski said.
In 2014, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor-vehicle crashes nationwide involving distracted drivers, according to federal statistics.
"Distractions are certainly a significant problem on highways in New Jersey," said Tracy Noble, a AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman. "Anything that would eliminate distractions and keep motorists safe is a step in the right direction."
Distracted driving can include talking to passengers, reading maps, using a navigation system, or watching a video, experts say.
A 2015 Erie Insurance survey found that drivers do everything from brushing their teeth to changing their clothes - all while driving.
However, texting poses the biggest distraction because it "requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver," according to the website distraction.gov.
The five seconds that it takes for motorists to take their eyes off the road while texting is enough time when driving at 55 mph to cover the length of a football field, research shows.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania are among 46 states that ban texting on a cellphone, but New Jersey's distracted-driving law doesn't include other behavior that also could be deemed distracting.
Wisniewski said broader legislation is needed to include any activity "that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle."
His proposal, introduced seven months ago, is modeled after a distracted driving law passed in Maine in 2009. A lawmaker said he introduced the bill there after a state trooper reported seeing a motorist driving while watching a movie on a laptop.
Wisniewski's bill doesn't specifically mention any behavior such as drinking coffee, although recent news reports said the proposal would ban motorists from enjoying their favorite java on the way to work, Wisniewski said.
"As a practical matter, do you want to be the police officer known as the coffee cop? Pulling people over for drinking coffee?" Wisniewski asked.
Wisniewski said he has been bombarded by a backlash against the proposed legislation by people who believed it would stop them from drinking coffee.
He said the distracted driving bill has sparked a bigger outcry than a measure he sponsored that proposed a 23-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase.
The distracted driving bill may face an uphill fight in Trenton. Wisniewski introduced a similar version in two previous legislative sessions, but they never came up for a vote.
Wisniewski said he plans to hold a hearing on the current legislation in the fall "and see where it goes from there."
A bill proposed earlier this year by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt (D., Camden) would impose a fine of up to $50 and possibly 15 days in jail for pedestrians caught using their cellphones without hands-free devices while walking on public sidewalks and along roadways.
If the bill becomes law, "petextrians" - people who text while walking - would face the same penalties as jaywalkers in New Jersey. That bill has not gained traction, and Lampitt has said she may have a tough time getting it passed.
856-779-3814 @mlburney