Cell Phone Use Prohibited - Up To $200 Fine

[BigMattFromTexas]

In San Angelo there's a new law that prohibits cell phone usage in any school zones during the school hours on school days the fine for using a cell phone in a school zone is up to $200. I don't think using my cell phone while driving(if i could drive) is worth $200, do You?
BigMatt

[Chris]

Who's gonna enforce that? Police officers patrolling the classrooms? 

[BigMattFromTexas]

Who's gonna enforce that? Police officers patrolling the classrooms?

Drivers can't use cell phones while driving in a school zones on roads

[Truvelo]

Does this include hands free?

[myosh_tino]

This is nothing new in California.  Here, as of July 2008, we cannot use our cell phones while driving unless we are using a hands-free device like a bluetooth earpiece.  Drivers under the age of 18 are never allowed to use a cell phone while driving.  A new law took effect January of 2009 that bans "texting" while driving.

Fines for a first offense are around $25-50 but after you add all the court costs and fees it'll set you back at least $125.

Also, this applies to everyone driving in the state of California which includes out-of-state drivers and foreigners.  And yes, the CHP and local police are enforcing this law.

Edit: According to this column in the San Jose Mercury News by Gary Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Roadshow), over 250,000 tickets have been written statewide for violating the cell phone law.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Im gonna try to get a picture of one of the signs that say's it.
BigMatt

[FLRoads]

Well, comparing 250,000 citations vs. the 37.6 million who live in California, that is not a whole lot of tickets. I was out there in July and saw a lot of people breaking that law. It did not matter if I was in the neighborhoods of San Diego or on the freeways of LA, it seemed to me that there are a lot of people driving out there who either do not know the law or are simply ignoring it. And on top of that, I did see one instance where law enforcement drove past a couple of drivers who were on the phone and those drivers were not pulled over.

[SSOWorld]

Seems that the cell phone law in San Angelo is also aimed at stopping students from using cell phones during school hours as well.

[Terry Shea]

Well, comparing 250,000 citations vs. the 37.6 million who live in California, that is not a whole lot of tickets. I was out there in July and saw a lot of people breaking that law. It did not matter if I was in the neighborhoods of San Diego or on the freeways of LA, it seemed to me that there are a lot of people driving out there who either do not know the law or are simply ignoring it. And on top of that, I did see one instance where law enforcement drove past a couple of drivers who were on the phone and those drivers were not pulled over.

On the contrary that sounds like a ton of tickets.  Yeah I know, that's only about 1 ticket for every 150 residents, but that's including underage kids and others who don't drive.  Also, obviously not everyone is going to violate the law and there are only a certain number of law enforcement officials to write the tickets, not to mention you can't use radar to detect cell phone usage (or can you?).  I'd like to know how that figure compares to speeding tickets issued during the same period.