Something going on in Dorset, UK, that I’d love to see throughout the US: cops are empowered to slap £60 ($90) fines on drivers who think phoning, texting, eating, putting on makeup, faxing & other activities are not incompatible with safe driving.
Here’s the sweet part: no excuses accepted.
Drivers trying out the vehicular version of “the dog ate my homework” to weasel out of the fine get no points for creativity. But they will get points on their driving license if they choose not to take a driver safety course in addition to paying their 60 quid.
Not that they don’t try. I can’t tell whether I’d give the whopper award to the woman who claimed she’d left her smart phone at home (unaccountably found on the passenger seat with her Facebook page open) or the one who seemed to think she was exempt from having kids secured by seat belts because “they’re not my children.”
I understand that Dorset is a small area to patrol & that US police forces are faced with balancing massive workloads with decreasing resources. But I really think instituting similar programs would be nothing but beneficial: new revenue streams, lower numbers of accidents due to basic driver idiocy & vastly improved morale amongst the cops.
After all, being able to bust morons without taking seriously their lame-ass excuses has to be a boost.
Although I suppose that pesky Constitution would constrain implementation, it apparently being enshrined there that Congress shall make no law restricting Americans’ right to behave like a bonehead & wriggle out of it by lying like a rug.
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