{"id":36753,"date":"2019-04-28T01:24:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T01:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36753"},"modified":"2019-04-28T01:24:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T01:24:59","slug":"enforcing-state-law-tough-practically-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36753","title":{"rendered":"Enforcing state law: tough, practically impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have run out of ways to express my delight in the Texas Legislature’s decision in 2017 to outlaw the use of handheld devices while driving anywhere in this state.<\/p>\n

Moreover, I also am glad that Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law, rather than vetoing it, which his predecessor, Rick Perry, did foolishly, citing a ridiculous notion of “invasion of privacy.”<\/p>\n

I also am delighted to see that Texas has posted signage on highways entering the state informing motorists that using a handheld device while driving is against the law.\u00a0<\/em>We spotted such a sign recently while returning to Texas along Interstate 20 after spending a night in Shreveport, La.<\/p>\n

However, I am not totally happy about the outcome. The law is virtually unenforceable, whether the motorist is violating a municipal ordinance or a state law. You see, police cannot be everywhere at once!<\/p>\n

My wife and I this every evening were walking along a street in Princeton, not far from our home. We noticed a driver speeding north along the street, exceeding the posted speed limit by a healthy margin. The driver was yapping on a cell phone; thus, she was breaking two laws simultaneously.\u00a0<\/em>For all I know she might have plastered to the gills or high as a kite to boot.<\/p>\n

Whatever. My point is that these laws are intended to be enforced, but I don’t know how the cops can catch everyone doing it.<\/p>\n

Then again, there’s another critical element. It well might be that the Legislature understood the difficulty in enforcing this law, but set up strict penalties<\/em> for motorists who become distracted<\/em> by these devices and, therefore, cause motor vehicle accidents.<\/p>\n

That’s a reasonable alternative.<\/p>\n\n

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I have run out of ways to express my delight in the Texas Legislature’s decision in 2017 to outlaw the use of handheld devices while driving anywhere in this state. Moreover, I also am glad that Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law, rather than vetoing it, which his predecessor, Rick Perry, did foolishly, … Continue reading Enforcing state law: tough, practically impossible<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[8584,6991,8585,4653],"class_list":["post-36753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-cellphone","tag-cellphone-ban","tag-interstate-20","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36755,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36753\/revisions\/36755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}