California car Insurance

Banning phone use while driving is all the rage these days -- despite evidence suggesting it doesn't help -- and now California's the latest to join the bandwagon. The law, which goes into effect January 1, 2008, requires the use of a hands-free device when chatting behind the wheel, lest some Erik Estrada type pulls you over and slaps you with a $20 fine.

Repeat offenders get their fine upped to $50, but apparently has no adverse effect on the driver's insurance premium; we suspect a sizable number of Californians are going to view an occasional $50 chat with a CHiP as more of a price of doing business than a deterrent (but then again, maybe that's the idea). And no, being parked in LA traffic won't count as an exemption.

Banning hand held units but allowing hands free units does nothing to diminish the cognitive distraction and effectively hides the problem. In any case, cell phone use while driving is only one of many distractors affecting driving. It is being singled out, however, because it is one of the only visible ones from outside the vehicle. Banning hand held units but allowing hands free units makes no sense.

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