By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
It’s not really about sipping coffee on the go. It’s more about driving while eating super sloppy stuff, or looking in a mirror while applying makeup or reading a newspaper at 65 miles an hour. Yes, drivers do that, and worse, apparently.
“Eating cereal. A bowl of cereal, with a spoon. While driving,” Katie Dodge said.
“Texting and putting on lipstick at the same time. Yeah. It was phenomenal,” Maria Mitchell said.
“The makeup. And I’ve also seen people read a novel. While they’re driving,” said BJ Ramos. “I was looking for law enforcement because they needed to pull them over.”
That’s why Assemblyman John Wisniewski drafted a bill to amend New Jersey’s no cell phone while driving law to include a ban on distracted driving behaviors. He knows about critics who call his proposal the ‘no drinking coffee and driving law.’
“Who want to make light of this, who want to say this is a government overreach. If they think that’s true, then I challenge them: how do we address distracted driving?” he asked,
Wisniewski cites national distracted driving statistics: 431,000 people injured in 2014, and more than 3,000 who lost their lives, and the numbers climb every year. But how would police interpret which behavior is distracting enough to pull a driver over and issue a summons?
“In this time of concern about police interaction with the public, they just don’t want more disdain put on them with an interpretation that somebody can be pulled over for drinking a cup of coffee. Even though all of us who’ve been discussing this know that’s not the intent, but you have to worry about the letter of the law what comes to such vague wording,” said Steve Carrellas from the National Motorists Association.
Carellas claims New Jersey laws already prohibit reckless driving and that police should stop drivers who do that — not motorists who eat a sandwich. Insurance experts also question the bill.
“Since we’ve seen before that trying to legislate one kind of distraction — cell phones — hasn’t resulted in a reduction in crashes. We don’t see a reason why trying to legislate a broader number of distractions would have a good effect either,” said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“It’s a problem that needs to be solved, and if not this bill, then what bill?” Wisniewski asked.
The bill sets penalties from $400 all the way up to $800, and a suspended license for multiple offenses. But for now it’s stalled in committee and liable to stay parked there.