New York, NY – Chatty drivers are raking in millions for the cash-strapped city – and a crackdown next week could bring in hundreds of thousands more, cops said.
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A 24-hour blitz on drivers yakking or texting begins at midnight next Tuesday, and cops expect thousands to be ticketed for talking behind the wheel, police said.
Getting busted with your hands on a cellphone instead of the steering wheel costs $130. And with about 617 summonses issued each day, that’s more than $80,000 a day for the city – or almost $30 million a year.
Last March, a similar day-long crackdown on motorists using their cellphones brought in 6,882 summonses – totalling more than $800,000 in fines, police said.
But cops said the sting isn’t all about the money.
“Our enforcement activity is solely motivated by safety concerns,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
A University of Utah study found that drivers who talk on their cellphones, or even use a hands-free device, are as impaired as drunken drivers.
now nobody can make his payes
We voted for Bloomberg again and again so we got what we bargained for
“Our enforcement activity is solely motivated by safety concerns,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.”
SURE!!!!
They should do this more often, It’s amazing how brazen drivers are. I walk regularly in flatbush and whenever a car fails to yield properly at a stop sign … sure enough he’s on a cell phone!
The cops will do what they did to my friend recently…make it all up! She had to go to court this week with her cell phone records to prove she wasn’t talking on her cell. The cop even turned up & just shrugged when confronted with the evidence.
To make it worse, at the time he flagged her down she had her 2 special needs kids in the car. When she said she wasn’t talking on her cell he threatened to arrest her then & there.
If it was me I’d sue for trauma. The kids were very upset.
people should not be holding their phones
they also should not be holding their ipods, electric shavers, make up, hot coffeee etc.
they should be totally focused on driving.
oh, and so should the cops. they are just as bad if not worse
Good! The City needs the money, drivers pay very little for their damaging privilege, and talking while driving is very dangerous… worse than being drunk in fact. I can’t believe there are people here complaining about the crackdown. When you are in a car, you have a grave responsibility to operate it safely.. grow up and meet that challenge, or else suffer the consequences.
In addition to people who speak on cell phones while driving, can’t our local Rabbanim have a prohibition against cell phone use in Shul during the week? How many times have we been davening (even during the Shemoneh Esrei), when our prayers our interrupted by someone’s loud, obnoxious, cell phone ring)? People are simply too inconsiderate or selfish to have the cell phone ring turned off when they enter Shul. Perhaps, they will miss an important call, which can’t wait during the 45 minutes that they are in Shul. They could adjust the phone to vibrate, so it doesn’t disturb other worshippers. Or, they could turn the phone down, so only they could hear it, and not individuals 100 feet away!