The producers of Fox Network’s hit action show 24 -- which thrives on the near-constant convenience of in-car, mobile phone-based narrative while hurtling through the streets of L.A. -- are probably staving off cold shivers today following the enforcement of a hands-free phone law across the state of California.
Not advised for those mobile phone users looking to to beat California\'s new hands-free driving law. Image: Bohman/Flickr.
Cheap media mocking aside, while TV show executives can easily maintain their projection of macho mobile phone posturing by simply switching locations to a state not currently beholden to the new law, general Californian citizens cannot.
Starting on Tuesday of this week, drivers across the west coast’s shining Golden State will have to keep their hands well away from their mobile phones when and if they decide to engage in telephonic conversations, unless they’re happy to be pulled over and stung by a $20 USD fine.
While $20 USD for chatting without a hands-free connection or Bluetooth headset might not exactly equate to feeling the ‘full force of the law,’ it is worth noting that the fine increases to $50 USD for those repeat offenders unwilling to place both of their hands on the steering wheel.
Not everyone in California is covered by the new law however, with a logical exception in place for members of the emergency services who have to communicate while driving in authorised vehicles. The exception also applies (until 2011) to those commercial drivers currently holding Class A or Class B licenses.
California is not the only U.S. state carrying a blanket, hands-free mobile phone law for its drivers, it is also in place in the likes of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Utah. Prior to the Californian adoption, Washington was the most recent state to embrace the law, putting it in place only last week.
In a somewhat twisted -- and perhaps misguided -- effort to encourage the use of hands-free sets in California, San Francisco-based Headsets.com has said it will send a free Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth wireless headset to any Californian motorist who’d like one.
An admirably noble idea undermined somewhat by the fact that qualification for receiving a free headset is dependent on being able to provide Headsets.com with a genuine citation proving penalisation under the new law within its first 30 days of enforcement.
Stranger still, incentive to suffer the $20 USD fine is magnified when learning that the offered headset is far from a bottom rung hardware entrant. Indeed, according to Headsets CEO Mike Faith, the Discovery 925 retails for around $150 USD.
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