RSSThe People’s Republic of Vermont to Ban All Driver Distractions … What about Jessica’s Law?
With the recent efforts of numerous states to ban talking on a cell phone while driving, 
Vermont has upped the ante. The People’s Republic of Vermont will now attempt to ban all activities that distract drivers. When will legislators understand that you cannot outlaw ignorance? Nor can you legislate personal responsibility. One would ask the law makers of The People’s Republic of Vermont why they make this an issue and not Jessica’s Law?
Emboldened by the passage of cell phone bans for drivers in some communities, states are turning their attention to other things that drive motorists to distraction.
Vermont lawmakers are considering a measure that would ban eating, drinking, smoking, reading, writing, personal grooming, playing an instrument, “interacting with pets or cargo,” talking on a cell phone or using any other personal communication device while driving. The punishment: a fine of up to $600. (AP)
Are there not already laws put in place for those that commit murder or negligent homicide 
while driving a vehicle? Are we supposed to ban everything within a vehicle that causes a distraction?
The insanity of such distraction laws are that everything is a distraction to a driver within a vehicle. Changing a radio station, let alone listening to a song and singing along with the song. Is that to be outlawed? Next lawsuits will be brought against the making of the car CD players. Everyone in a vehicle other than the driver is a distraction. Is the law to be wrote that no one shall have a conversation with the driver as that will cause a distraction? Daydreaming will also now be outlawed. Next will be the amount of people allowed in a vehicle. More than 3 teenagers will not be allowed if a driver has less than 3 years if driving experience. Also, the teens will not be allowed to talk to each other and will wear a special muzzle at all times to ensure there be no talking.
We start to see the stupidity of legislating what most people think is personal responsibility. If law makers were really serious about driving safety wouldn’t they have mandatory visual and driving tests for those in there elder years when the driving skills begin to fade? Of course that will not occur because of the AARP voting block.
One would think that the state of Vermont and others could find ways to make the roads more safe than such grandstanding efforts. Exactly how many accidents are created by people playing a flute while in the commission of driving a car? Maybe the legislators in VT can do something more important like pass Jessica’s Law?
In a state where so many area do not even have cell phone coverage, let alone that many drivers as there are less than a million in population in The People’s Republic the law makers would rather pass such restrictive bills against drivers rather than pedophiles.
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11 Responses to “The People’s Republic of Vermont to Ban All Driver Distractions … What about Jessica’s Law?”
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I will not move to vermont.I have walked and driven through,so no more.The ice cream was good.The attitude is not.
There has probably not been a state in the US that has chenged more in the last 30 years than VT … and not for the better.
What few people remember is that VT was once one of the main strongholds for Repbican votes in New England.
In the 1976 Election between Carter & Ford, VT was the only NE state that voted for Ford.
My how its changed into a Communist Republic complete with socialist Senators. What a shame,
R
LOL
The law of unintended consequences. They will make illegal driving through the countryside looking at the leave turn in autumn. That is a huge distraction.
And thus lose one of the biggest tourism revenue generators they have.
Tom
I suppose they will ban good looking men and women being visible walking next, so it won’t distract drivers.
How does a Vermontier drive with their yunguns in the car?
Heck, kids (ages 0 to about 15) are far more distracting than a cell phone could ever be.
Excerpt: HAMMOND (AP) — A ringing cell phone caused an accident that killed a 17-year-old Chalmers girl — and the cell phone wasn’t in her car.
Police say Jessica Oliver was killed two years ago near Remington — about 25 miles northwest of Lafayette — when the 59-year-old driver of another car looked down at her ringing cell phone. The driver lost control of her car, crossed over the median on Interstate 65 and struck Oliver’s car.
It is one of 2,054 traffic accidents in Indiana during the past four years, including at least two fatal crashes, in which cell phones were listed as the primary cause, Indiana State Police say.
http://tinyurl.com/2uwu37
Excerpt: ATHENS, Ala. – Lindsay Lane Baptist Church pastor Dusty McLemore had a dental appointment Thursday and it’s a good thing he did.
A car, driven by a 40-year-old Athens woman, crashed into his church office during lunch hour. Investigating police officer James Hand said if McLemore had been there, he likely would have been injured.
Joanne Brown was moderately injured when her car smashed into the church. The car landed just a couple of feet from the pastor’s desk.
“She was headed north on Lindsay Lane and her cell phone, which she had in her purse, started ringing and she rushed to answer it,” Hand said Brown told him. “She took her eyes off the road, causing her to lose control. Her car crossed the southbound lane, ran into a ditch, crossed the churchyard and hit the brick church building at full speed. I think speed had a little to do with it, too.”
http://tinyurl.com/2ku389
Excerpt: P-I REPORTER — Cruising down the information superhighway proved to be a bad match Tuesday morning with commuting on Seattle’s asphalt and steel freeways.
A driver whose eyes were fixed on his BlackBerry slammed his Dodge van into a car stopped in traffic in the express lanes of Interstate 5 near the Ship Canal Bridge, police say. That crash set off a five-vehicle pileup that included a Community Transit bus with 28 people aboard, slightly injured a baby boy and snarled the morning commute.
“This one could have been catastrophic,” Trooper Jeff Merrill of the Washington State Patrol said.
http://tinyurl.com/serns
Legislate common sense? Isn’t it sad that sometimes it comes to that? Like the law against driving while intoxicated! Can you imagine what the clamor would be if airline crashes were being caused by pilots being distracted while text messaging or talking on their cell phones?
It isn’t that we Vermonters have changed that much … it’s the people up here who get the publicity. And unfortunately, our Vermont individualism and philsophy of “let them go their own way” tends to encourage the freaks.
I’ve seen wild turkeys, bobcats, deer, and other animals by the side of the road. Moose, too, way up north near the Canadian border. I know one guy who saw a bear dash across the road. So what can our state do about them?
I’ve often wondered … if cell phones are dangerous for drivers to be handling (which makes some sense), what about those of us who drink coffee while driving? Obviously a beer or something like that should not be allowed … but where do you draw the line?
Is the answer to have all passengers bound and gagged, lest they say something that distracts the driver? Suppose a beautiful girl is on the side of the road … we get a lot of bicyclists and joggers, even in February weather (the latter, anyway; not too many bicyclists) … should they be outlawed?
What about flower beds or horses?
What about the dangers of someone looking at the Green Mountains, which run up and down the center of the state, or the Adirondacks, over in New York?
And don’t forget the cows … I’ve had to wave my arms and yell myself in northern Vermont to keep cows out of the road.
The upshot seems to be … any policeman will be given liberty to write a ticket for any “disturbance” that he wants to. And the “crime rate” will only go up and up….
Of course, we Vermonters are always careful drivers … it’s the out-of-state idiots, aka flatlanders, who cause the problems.
So we say, anyways ….
As for cell phone coverage, though, the geography of the state does tend to make coverage spotty. It’s a big issue here.
But criticizing Vermonters doesn’t always lead to good results. Our independent ways are well known. There’s a saying that the Vermonter would rather go to Hell in his own way than to Heaven in yours.
It doesn’t always endear us to people, but so what? After all, we were the first in the nation to outlaw slavery….
in 2004 i lived in fitchburg,massachusetts for a year. only a short hop to vermont. it is very beautiful up their with the fall leaves foilage, winding roads over streams and brooks, mountains, wildlife, the odd ol churchs, covered road bridges, lots of town squares and farms and houses from the 18th century – its the scenery that causes distraction; drivers look left, up, down, right – everywhere but the road ahead.
I went to a wedding there tex..I have to agree , it is very beautiful..
Richard … I really have to disagree with you this time … rarely do I ever.
Was born and raised in VT ,,, I din’t leave VT … VT left me.
It is no way near the place I knew … not even close.
R