City commissioners recently voted against an ordinance that would have penalized drivers who use cell phones while committing traffic violations. The Royal Oak Traffic Committee proposed the $200 civil infraction, but city commissioners believe the issue of distracted drivers would be better handled on the state level with a uniform traffic code. While officials agreed cell phones can create a nuisance, some voiced concern that drivers would become confused about which communities across Metro Detroit have such laws, making the ordinance difficult to enforce.It's more important that you violated traffic laws than why you violated them. To assess fines for one type of distraction suggests other distractions are more-or-less distracting, but if they result in a violation, weren't they distracting enough?
What then of drivers that weren't distracted at all but simply weren't paying attention? What if we took away distracting cell phones, radios, CD players, DVD players, cute passengers, crying babies, thrown toys, drive-through food, drinking, spilled drinks, cigarettes, last-minute makeup, shaving, cute passers-by, window signs, lawn signs, and billboards and people still committed traffic violations?
Apparently, political correctness exists even for "failure to yield right-of-way" as it does everything else.
Glad to see you and Tiffani, at least, are providing some good sense and a conscience, that which seems to be missing from the DDA in Ferndale.
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