
{"id":8247,"date":"2009-12-03T10:19:26","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T18:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=8247"},"modified":"2009-12-03T10:20:20","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T18:20:20","slug":"texting-ban-takes-effect-put-it-down-and-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/12\/03\/texting-ban-takes-effect-put-it-down-and-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Texting ban takes effect: put it down and drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Beth Mechum, Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nNorth Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ban on sending text messages while driving went into effect Dec. 1. Getting caught in the act will mean a $100 fine.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect police officers to go easy on first-time offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro Police public information officer Captain Joel Booker said that though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to each police officer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discretion, he expects more fines than warnings to be handed out.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The likelihood of catching someone doing it is so low, if you do catch someone doing it you almost feel compelled to enforce it through a fine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Booker said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not trying to make an example out of someone, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important people know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dangerous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The law applies only to the driver and only while the vehicle is moving.<\/p>\n<p>Booker said the ban has particular significance in a town such as Carrboro, where the downtown area is congested not only with motorists but pedestrians and bikers as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine why someone would want to text and drive an automobile,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To me, that would almost be like someone with a firearm closed their eyes and started shooting. What you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re driving is just as dangerous, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not watching where you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Booker said the Carrboro Police Department has not discussed in great detail how to enforce the ban.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to set up a checkpoint \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have resources available,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Booker said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the officer felt very confident that someone was texting and that they could safely get that person pulled over, then they will.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Beth Mechum, Staff Writer North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ban on sending text messages while driving went into effect Dec. 1. Getting caught in the act will mean a $100 fine. And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect police officers to go easy on first-time offenders. Carrboro Police public information officer Captain Joel Booker said that though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to each&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8247"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8250,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions\/8250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}