8:15am | According to the Long Beach Police Department, Distracted Driving Awareness Month didn’t begin until today, so perhaps that’s why on April 1 the four quasi-uniformed police officers in the quasi-unmarked unit I saw on Ocean Boulevard in front of the courthouse showed no interest in the woman driving with a cell phone to her ear, even though they were in stop-and-go traffic with her basically next to them (separated by one lane) for well over a minute.
When I wrote on this subject last summer, I lamented that law enforcement didn’t do more, um, enforcement of the laws prohibiting the use of handheld communication devices, so of course I’m glad that for at least one month the police will be doing more (presuming this isn’t just talk).
But I’m a bit perturbed to see in the announcement that only these 27 days in April will be “zero-tolerance days for cell phone use and texting,” — perturbed because the clear implication is that the other 338 days of the year are not zero-tolerance days.
Look, people got along fine for decades without talking on the phone while driving, and they could get along fine now, but that ship has sailed. So to make the whole thing as safe as possible, we have hands-free options. If drivers disdain to operate a ton of fiberglass and metal on wheels as safely as possible, there ought to be serious consequences all year ’round.
Here’s a suggestion to the city of Long Beach and the LBPD: Hire citizens to stand out on the sidewalk with a video camera and ask them to catch offenders on film. Each piece of video must capture the driver in the act of using a handheld device while behind the wheel, as well as the car’s license plate. Pay each of these “employees” 10 percent of all fines collected for these offense — fines that will be easy to collect, since the law is clear and the evidence incontrovertible. Aside from inevitably reducing the rate of law-breaking (since the ticketing rate for the offenses in question will skyrocket), my program will create much-needed jobs, as well as generate increased revenue for the city.
Because I gotta tell you, I could go stand on Ocean right now and come back in less than an hour with no fewer than three qualifying pieces of video. At a minimum of $159 per offense (says the announcement), that’s $47 for an hour’s work.
Perhaps my idea’s a bit simplistic. So I’d love to see a better one put into practice. Distracted Driving Awareness Month? That’s certainly better than nothing. But like they say about healthy eating, success is not about dieting, it’s about a lifestyle change.
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