I like how the eating while driving ban is considered tongue-in-cheeck. All of these laws are ridiculous. I know some people who can talk on the phone and drive perfect, signaling and all. And I see drivers who are not distracted speeding, running stop signs, changing lanes without signalling, and tailgating. They need to enforce safe driving laws and pull over dangerous drivers regardless if they are on their cell phone or not. We are dumbing down our society by catering to the weakest links and trying to protect everyone from everything. A responsible person would know if they can carry a conversation and drive at the same time or not. I'm more distracted by other people in the car with me, so let's ban passengers too.

Seriously? A ban on reading while driving? So reading driving directions either in print or on an electronic device could now be illegal? What's next? Reading road signs could be considered distracted driving? Don't these elected retards have more important issues to deal with? Do they get brownie points or kick backs for passing inane and useless laws?

They can ban reading texts as long as they don't prevent me from reading twiiter updates while driving down 95!

FROM JULIE: The ban applies to reading all electronic messages, including Facebook and Twitter updates.

Why dont the elected leaders pass Term limits. Having the same elected leaders in office for decades is a distraction to growth in the State. they need to focus on more important issues

Ken -
You said "A responsible person would know if they can carry a conversation and drive at the same time or not".
It's the irresponsible that you and I and everyone else need to be protected from. Unfortunately, the stupid are too stupid to know that they are.

So now you cant read directions while driving?? Then they ought to pay for people to retrofit cars with voice navigation, like they did with the tv antenna crap they pushed last year. Give everyone a $40 coupon for a $40 gps unit with voice integration.

Julie does this mean the police can't type on their laptops while driving 75 on the beltway any longer? It was always exciting to watch from a safe distance. You know the gotta type those tag numbers while driving one of these cars may be registered to Bin Laden

Julie, you wrote to Paul that it only applies to electronic messages. . . .So if I have the directions to the place I am going on an email, i.e., an electronic message, on my phone or I use the "maps" feature on my phone, I can't look at it?! This State is ridiculous! There is already a law on the books that makes distracted driving illegal. I am soooo happy I left Maryland after 35 years last year. What a joke of a Police/Tax State it has become.

Vote with your feet Marylanders. You don't realize how bad it is until you move somewhere else and find out what real happiness is all about. You pay so much to live there and get so little in return.

I'd rather be free and have rights than be "protected."

Free to kill someone while you drive distracted? People, you need to get a grip.

A ban on reading anything at all while driving. Great. Just great. God forbid the morons who run this state should actually allow us to read our own speedometers, because then they'd have no recourse to hand out speeding tickets and shove more money in their own pockets while running up the deficit on the honest working man...at least until they got through all the legwork it would take to pass those bans on using your radio and climate controls. Or, for that matter, your turn signals...can't let those drivers get too distracted by misusing their hands for things other than the steering wheel!

What about the people that drives with their dogs and cats?
Will this be banned? I've thought about this for many years!!!

Can they put a ban on reading a BOOK or NEWSPAPER while driving then? I see this all the time.

Excuse me, I'm looking for the road back to the land of the free, can someone help me find it?

I got a nickname for our state: "Little North Korea" where big brother is watching your every move. We are continuing to turn into a police state.

If this applies to us, then believe me, i do believe there should be no immunity for to the police, congress, or anyone of the such. This law should apply to them as well because I'm sure congressional leaders are quite guilty of reading text messages while on the road.

So if we are stopped at an intersection where there is a red light and we're waiting for a green light, this applies to that too? I think that's pretty ridiculous.

Maryland's government has bigger fish to fry right now. This is not the time to be passing crappy bills like that. We got a $3 billion deficit to worry about, union strikes are building up in Maryland, and gas is going through the roof

Hey Maryland, WHY DON'T YOU FOCUS ON YOUR TOP PRIORITIES because this one was way at the bottom of the list of chores.

We really should ban more than one person in a car . . . after all, conversation can be terribly distracting as the cell phone law exhibits. What's the difference? I guess one could say with the cell phone, one hand is taken off the wheel. How about a law requiring TWO hands on the wheel? The ship of state is sinking and look at what our legislators are concerned with . . .

wow! Duh, the brain works differently when having a conversation with a person sitting beside you than it does conversing on any telephone, hands on or off. Electronic conversation is more distracting. You guys are way overreacting

So Penny, what study can you cite to support your statement? As you are probably aware, there is no law against "hands off" electronic conversation, are you
lobbying for that as well?

A state in crisis, and this is what the morons in our legislature choose to focus on. Rather than focus on a single law to address distracted driving, the morons will write new pieces of legislation to cover very narrow areas, simply to get them passed. First its a secondary offense. Then it becomes a primary offense the following year. Then they discover a few other things they conveniently "missed" the first time around, and repeat the process.

I knew this would happen, too. The morons in Annapolis are so terribly predictable. I'm just wondering when the idiots who keep electing them will learn their lesson.

So now we will soon have a new law that addresses reading while driving, but only for electronic devices. Drivers can still be distracted by a million other things behind the wheel, just not electronic devices. Meanwhile, it'll soon be illegal for me to use my navigation system. I feel sooooo much safer now.

Morons.

Result of distracted driving while on cell phone

http://chance-wilcox.last-memories.com

JUST DRIVE

Signed: A SAD Mom

FHR -- read the article -- the bill will not address reading while driving. The Republicans offered the amendments to show the idiocy of the bill.

Drivers have been distracted since the horse and buggy days by billboards, Burma shave signs (okay, I'm dating myself), hot looking hitch-hikers, and just plain day dreaming. As stated before, these legislators (to keep it polite) should get a life.

Let's try to summarize and state it simply: It's impossible to legislate "distraction free" driving.

We lost 5500 people last year due to cell phones. This number dose not include the ones called accidents. I lost a beautiful daughter in 2007 because some one else thought a conversation on a cell was more important. Education is the key. Please go to distractive driving sites., like Focus driven. Read or listen to some of the facts or people suffering. When you loose a love one your life is a living h e l l ! Be responsible and keep you eyes and mind on the road. You do not want to receive the call your child is dead.