Get your headset ready
As of this Saturday, you can be pulled over in New Jersey for talking or texting on a cellphone:
Starting Saturday, police can slap drivers with a $130 fine for talking or text messaging on hand-held devices.
New Jersey joins four other states, including neighboring New York, where talking on a hand-held cell phone is reason enough to get pulled over. New Jersey also becomes the first state where text messaging on the road is a primary offense, meaning police need no other reason to pull a driver over, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Pam Fischer, director of New Jersey's Division of Highway Traffic Safety, said officers will be on the lookout for telltale signs of distracted drivers , slow driving and the "cell-phone weave."
But enforcement of the text messaging law will be tough.
"It's difficult," Fischer said. "The law is designed to get those law-abiding folks to understand the danger inherent in these activities."
Drivers can still use their cell phones to contact police or emergency services, and can talk at any time with a hands-free device. But crash statistics suggest that those headsets and earpieces may not make conversations in the car any safer.
In 2006, nearly half of the 3,580 phone-related crashes in New Jersey also involved a hands-free device, according to transportation officials. Five of 11 fatal accidents involving a cell phone that year also involved a hands-free device.
Russ Rader, of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said those figures are consistent with recent research showing no difference in crash risk between hand-held and hands-free cell phones.
"The conversation itself is the distraction," said Rader. "You are in another place when you are talking on the phone."
Driving while using a hand-held cell phone has been illegal in New Jersey since 2004, when the state became the second in the nation to pass a ban. However, it was considered a secondary offense, or something drivers could be ticketed for if they were pulled over for another reason. Over the past year, state courts have recorded 16,000 tickets issued for the offense.
Starting Saturday, police can slap drivers with a $130 fine for talking or text messaging on hand-held devices.
New Jersey joins four other states, including neighboring New York, where talking on a hand-held cell phone is reason enough to get pulled over. New Jersey also becomes the first state where text messaging on the road is a primary offense, meaning police need no other reason to pull a driver over, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Pam Fischer, director of New Jersey's Division of Highway Traffic Safety, said officers will be on the lookout for telltale signs of distracted drivers , slow driving and the "cell-phone weave."
But enforcement of the text messaging law will be tough.
"It's difficult," Fischer said. "The law is designed to get those law-abiding folks to understand the danger inherent in these activities."
Drivers can still use their cell phones to contact police or emergency services, and can talk at any time with a hands-free device. But crash statistics suggest that those headsets and earpieces may not make conversations in the car any safer.
In 2006, nearly half of the 3,580 phone-related crashes in New Jersey also involved a hands-free device, according to transportation officials. Five of 11 fatal accidents involving a cell phone that year also involved a hands-free device.
Russ Rader, of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said those figures are consistent with recent research showing no difference in crash risk between hand-held and hands-free cell phones.
"The conversation itself is the distraction," said Rader. "You are in another place when you are talking on the phone."
Driving while using a hand-held cell phone has been illegal in New Jersey since 2004, when the state became the second in the nation to pass a ban. However, it was considered a secondary offense, or something drivers could be ticketed for if they were pulled over for another reason. Over the past year, state courts have recorded 16,000 tickets issued for the offense.