New York may ban iPods while crossing city streets
New Yorkers who heedlessly cross city streets while listening to their Apple iPod or fumbling with other electronics devices, such as cell phones, may soon face a hefty fine from the city.
Kruger said Tuesday that three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district were killed in recent months upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device.
"Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry," he said in a telephone interview with the AP. "This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand."
New York's streets are frequently consumed with gadget wielding and earbud bearing residents who are looking to fire-off that extra e-mail or pass the brunt of their daily commutes with a tune.
"I'm not trying to intrude on that," Kruger said. "But what's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles. It's becoming a nationwide problem."
60 Comments
Hmm...
I don't agree with this at all. I'd say these people get exactly what they deserve should they be hit by a vehicle.
I'd prefer to see a law that absolves the motorist of any blame should he hit someone walking along without paying any attention.
Stop protecting stupid people. That only ensures they'll breed more of the same. Additionally, leaving nice painted outlines in the street of the people eliminated in this fashion may help get the message across in a way that some silly law just wouldn't.
p.s. - I also hate seeing people fiddling with all this crap while they drive, so don't assume I'm trying to coddle those bastards...
I agree, if they are dumb enough to get hit by NOT paying attention, then Darwinism is at work and doing good for human kind. Why does government continue to legislate everything we do in this life? Must they continue to "protect" us from everything? This law is a BAD idea!
That is not the only drawback of these new devices. PEOPLE ARE SERIOUSLY DAMAGING THEIR HEARING!!!
Imagine a world in 20-30 years filled with deaf people. It will arrive. Just remember this post. You will hear your neighbors TV or radio because they will set them too loud to hear them. Then it will be TOO LATE!!!
But I guess money is money... Even for our beloved Apple...
The increasing absurdity of NYC's laws is one reason neither Hillary Clinton nor former mayor Rudolph Guiliani will get my vote in 2008. I have an intense dislike of this sort of meddlesome 'nanny state' mindset with its accompanying attitude "we, the elite few, know more than you, the masses." NYC is heading down the same path that's making most major British cities unlivable--criminalizing ordinary behavior while trivializing actual crime.
Under Guiliani, it was claimed that adding and enforcing all sorts of petty meddlesome laws decreased the crime rate. In all probability, the criminals, being both practical and highly mobile, simply moved their operations to nearby communities. And in the end, NYC residents are stuck with a system in which they're more likely to be 'mugged' by a cop and fined by a court enforcing silly laws than they were to be mugged before.
Seattle, where I live, has a similar problem, probably an illustration of its tendency to mimic NYC. The city does nothing to catch teens writing graffati, but it's very zealous at forcing the victims (business and homeowners) to paint over the graffati or pay a fine.
And people in NYC are soooooo passive in the face of these insults to their dignity and intelligence. When Chicago passed a similarly dumb law recently, the law was openly ignored. Restaurants simply gave the banned food another name and the city's law enforcement announced that they had better things to do than enforce that law.
NYC is an entry point for the dreaded Euro-nanny state. Chicago is the Wild West where people take care of themselves and their friends. I prefer the latter.
That is not the only drawback of these new devices. PEOPLE ARE SERIOUSLY DAMAGING THEIR HEARING!!!
Yes and we all know that Apple sets the volume control to the highest setting when they ship new iPods to purposefully damage everyone's hearing!