On 13 Jan 2005 15:12:26 -0800, jim rozen wrote:
In article , Dave Hinz says...

I'd prefer punishing actions rather than possessions.
Drive unsafely, for whichever reason, get a ticket.

Agree strongly. However folks don't get ticketed for
*posessing* a phone. It's a particular combination of
a) driving and b) using it that defines the illegal
act.

Close, but wrong. Driving and causing a _problem_ should be
the punishable offense, not driving and not causing a problem.

The state legislature has decided that the correlation
between poor driving and cell phone use is large enough
to link the two, legally speaking.

The state legislature of California has decided that various chemicals
cause cancer as well, but that doesn't mean they do; it just means that
a bunch of lobbyists convinced a bunch of lawyers (the legislature) that
their presentation was good enough to be right.

I too wish that poor driving, and not for example
speed, were the triggering event for a ticket.

Well, speed by itself isn't a problem, just as using a cellphone
by itself isn't a problem. It's unsafe use of either that is the
problem, and which should be the ticketable offense.