{"id":642,"date":"2013-01-29T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/29\/anti-cellphone-law-tough-to-enforce"},"modified":"2013-01-29T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T23:18:00","slug":"anti-cellphone-law-tough-to-enforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=642","title":{"rendered":"Anti-cellphone law tough to enforce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a title=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/01\/29\/lawmakers-renew-push-texting-while-driving-ban\/\" href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/01\/29\/lawmakers-renew-push-texting-while-driving-ban\/\">http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/01\/29\/lawmakers-renew-push-texting-while-driving-ban\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Texas lawmakers are considering whether to make another run at enacting a state law banning texting while driving.<\/p>\n<p>I wish it would happen. But based on some highly unscientific evidence I\u2019ve been able to gather since the start of the new year, it could be a tough law to enforce.<\/p>\n<p>How do I know this? I don\u2019t <em>know<\/em> it as fact, but here\u2019s what I\u2019ve noticed around Amarillo: The number of motorists I&#8217;ve witnessed talking while driving seems to have diminished very little since a city ordinance banning the activity took effect.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve swung three ways on this issue: undecided, to opposing the ordinance and finally to favoring it.<\/p>\n<p>The City Commission showed some guts in voting 4-1 to enact the ordinance. The police department has begun issuing warnings to motorists. But as I sit in my car at intersections watching motorists drive by in other directions, I continue to see many of them yakking on the phone as they whiz by.<\/p>\n<p>What will it take to ban this activity? Time might have to lapse. There might have to be \u2013 God forbid \u2013 a horrific accident caused by some idiot motorist dialing a cellphone while driving through heavy traffic. The city might have to kick off an <em>intense<\/em> public-relations campaign to inform motorists of the new law and warn them in stark terms what happens if they break it by operating a handheld cellphone while sitting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll concede that my findings aren\u2019t fool-proof. But I do pay attention to these types of things.<\/p>\n<p>I just wish we had enough traffic cops to catch all the violators.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/01\/29\/lawmakers-renew-push-texting-while-driving-ban\/ Texas lawmakers are considering whether to make another run at enacting a state law banning texting while driving. I wish it would happen. But based on some highly unscientific evidence I\u2019ve been able to gather since the start of the new year, it could be a tough law to enforce. How do I know &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=642\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Anti-cellphone law tough to enforce<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","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=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}