CHP officer finds two motorists holding cellphones

I just spoke to CHP Officer Edward McElroy, who normally works in the investigations unit but worked the rush hour patrol this morning on the 110 Freeway south of downtown. In that time, he ticketed one motorist for holding a cellphone and talking on it and warned another.

"Just my general observation being out there on the road is that [the new laws] have cut down quite a bit on people holding the phones and driving," McElroy said. "Driving home yesterday I saw a lot more people with phones to their ears."

He said that the CHP wasn't putting special patrols to look for cellphone law violators.

As for the people he caught: The one he ticketed was a male driver. "He actually stated that he heard the news [about the cellphone laws] on the radio all of yesterday and he was aware of it, but he didn't think anything about it until he saw me behind him," McElroy said.

The other motorist, also a man, said that he had a hands-free set but that it was at home being charged. McElroy let him off with a warning.

I also asked McElroy what he personally thought of the law -- would it make the roads safer? Or was it much ado about nothing because the conversation, not the phone, is the real distraction, as some researchers assert?

"There's still a lot of inattention out there, but anything we can do is helpful," McElroy said. "We're the ones seeing the blood and guts [of accidents] on a daily basis, and anything we can do to alleviate some of that I would think is a good thing."

--Steve Hymon

Comments

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

Got another one; Monday 0945 Felicia Mahood Recreation Center near Santa Monica Blvd. and Sawtelle; someone
driving a city Parks and Recreation vehicle on a (non-hands free) cellphone turning into the center's parking
lot just talking away without a care in the world.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

July 3: field report.....VEnice Blvd. at Bagley/Main St.
one truck driver spotted using (non-hands free)
cellphone as he was behind the wheel of an
A. P. P. Trucking Co. vehicle tooling east on Venice Blvd.