Minnesotans Still Being Cited For New Hands-Free Law
Well, this isn't great. Minnesotans are still being cited for the new hands-free law, which went into effect in August.
The law states that no motorist in Minnesota can touch or use their cell phone while behind the wheel. No motorist should be doing this anyway but thanks to this new law, it is illegal.
The law went into effect on August 1st and now, nearly three months later, Minnesotans are still receiving citations. According to a report put out by the Associated Press, more than 5,000 people have received a citation since the law began.
To put this number into perspective, the first week the law went into effect, about 500 people were pulled over. In mid-September, Minnesota State Patrol reported that over 2,000 people had been pulled over for failing to comply with the law.
Someone was even pulled over on the very first day the law went into effect! One Minnesotan was pulled over for using her phone to tell her friend about the new law. Sigh.
Needless to say, it looks like not everyone is complying with the law. This is to be expected, as there will always be people that won't do as they are supposed to, but the fact that thousands of people have been cited for using their phone while driving is scary. Hopefully that number does not increase much as we head into the new year.