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Florida Man Faces $48k Fine For Jamming Drivers' Cellphones
An anonymous reader writes with this news from The Independent: An American driver is facing a $48,000 fine after using a mobile signal jammer in his car to block motorists around him from using their phones on the road. Jason Humphreys reportedly used the jammer from the back seat of his Toyota Highlander for around two years before being caught by Florida police. The 60-year-old said that he used the jammer – which transmits radio signals that interfere with mobile phones – because he was 'fed up' with watching others use their phones on the road.
A story from late April (before the fine was levied) gives more detail: The case along I-4 started on April 29, 2013, when the cellular company Metro PCS contacted the Federal Communications Commission because a transmission tower along I-4 would suffer in the morning and evening. A week later, agents from the FCC's enforcement division in Tampa staked out the freeway on May 7, 8, and 9 and pinpointed a “strong wideband emission” in the cellphone wireless range “emanating from a blue Toyota Highlander sport utility vehicle,” with Florida license plates, according to a complaint issued by the FCC on Tuesday. Another clue: When Hillsborough County Sheriffs deputies stopped the SUV, their own two-way radios were jammed."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
FloridaMan, hero of the people!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I agree with the first part of your comment, and came here to say almost the same thing. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
The second part makes you seem like a moron. Seriously, losing access to your e-toy for a minute or two is worth killing over? Get a grip.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
I can't say I disagree with why he did it, but it's kind of hard to argue that he didn't break the law.
From what I can tell, at any given time a huge fraction of drivers are either texting, or holding onto their phone and talking.
If where I lived introduced one of those bounties where you get money if you can get a picture of a face and a license plate using the phone while driving ... well, I could go a few blocks from my house to an intersection, and pay off my house in a few weeks.
Almost weekly I find myself behind someone who is driving a little erratic because they're holding their phone with one hand, gesturing with the other, and not paying attention to what's going on around them.
I feel bad for this guy, but I fear he's probably screwed, since he broke the law in doing this. If someone had needed to call 911 near him that wouldn't have worked out well.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Seems contrary to what he is trying to accomplish. I assume he wants people to put their phones down and pay more attention to driving. I think the results will be more people looking at their phones in confusion, trying to redial, etc. i.e. the exact opposite of paying more attention to their driving.
And if he drove past an accident and interrupted a 911 call? Man fuck you.
But he could could have bought one of those russian style dash cams. Mounted it on near the roof line, looking sideways and downwards. May be two such cams on either side of the vehicle. Record it continuously and report the actual distracted drivers, along with the video footage to police. Or without even going to police upload them into some kind of YouTube channel and shame them into compliance. When they see how seriously long, their "momentary" glance at the texts, the distance covered when they were distracted, most sane people will feel compelled to comply. After all, 99.9% of the people do come to full stop at stop signs even when there is no other vehicle is in sight, without any one policing it.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Wrong.
By jamming their phones, drivers are more likely to look down at their phones wondering why the hell their calls isn't going through, making them MORE likely to cause an accident.
Captcha = reckless
I want a mobile version for my bicycle, so that people, you know, will refrain from trying to kill me all the time.
Do you have any suggestions for what to do about cyclists who are jabbering on their phone via bluetooth while they ride? Or who are having their texts read to them? Or who are wobbling along at 10mph using an entire lane with a 45mph limit, as they fiddle with their handlebar-mounted smartphone's You Are Fabulous, Look How Fit You Are! app? Or those that weave through slow moving cars in order to beat them to a red light so they can scoot across the intersection against the light when they think they can make it? Most of the risk I see involving cyclists is completely self-inflicted. We have all sorts of bicycle lanes around here, paid for by all tax payers, but reserved just for those special snowflakes on bikes. And those lanes look just fantastic there, empty, while the guy on the road bike climbs a hill at 3mph in the middle of traffic in a main lane right next to it. So far, my sympathy continues to hover right around zero.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
he was acting in self defense to prevent an idiot driving while on a cell phone from causing an accident
"The signal is bad around these parts... let's switch to message chat !"
This is a prime example of why we have societies, laws and regulations - in this case those designed to stop mobile phone usage. Going for an individual solution quickly devolves into mayhem: thousands of bystanders affected, emergency calls interrupted, and probably not a single accident prevented.
Came here to say exactly this.
Whoever uses the phone while driving will try 2-3 times and have his eyes on the phone longer as opposed as having the other side answer and him talking and leat looking in front of him.
Yes, I know the attention span of someone talking on the phone and driving is the same as someone who's drunk, but still it must beat not looking at the road.
Curiously yours, crip.
... drivers trying to troubleshoot their phones. If you've ever been in the car with someone trying to reboot their phone, re-sync bluetooth, change their map destination, etc... you know they are more dangerous than anyone talking - I wonder how many inadvertent accidents his jammer caused.
When car started to be equipped with electronic spark control, it was found that a particular UK car brand was very prone to RFI from CB stations. Whenever the RF field was strong enough, the car engine stopped due to EM interference.
CB radio drivers, whenever they spotted this car type in the London traffic, drove close to it, honked at the poor driver to get his attention, and then showed him their hand pressing the push-to-talk button of the transceiver...
If you pretentious jerks would follow the rules of the road Instead of doing things like: splitting lanes with cars, especially when they're stopped at a traffic control; riding next to your buddies in the car lane when you have a perfectly good bike lane; and completely ignoring traffic controls creating situations that would get a motorist killed if they tried that in a car; you might not think people were trying to kill you.
It always shocks me when I see one whose actually following the rules of the road.
It's not illegal to be riding and using a cell phone at the same time.
It is illegal to cause harmful emissions (jamming)
In Florida, only for text messaging. They don't ban hand-helds or cell phones.
See http://www.drivinglaws.org/flo...
Also, officers don't pull you over simply because you are on the phone, they only enforce it if they catch you doing something else at the same time.
I wasn't arguing that he was in the right, even if I got a kick out of what he did. Vigilantism deserves to be punished. I was arguing, however, that if you're going to be a criminal, at least be smart about it. Driving around all day blasting illegal EM noise is just as stupid as robbing a bank without a mask on. I suppose we're fortunate that so many criminals aren't smart.
I heard this one kid once started a thermonuclear war, just because he was looking for a BBS to play games on.
It all ended up OK in the end though after tic-tac-toe proved that all conflict is pointless.
How about a nice game of chess?
Well, let's look at this carefully. You can get weather from NOAA (162.5xx mHz). At least in my neck of the woods, you can also get EAS warnings from them.
So now, that jamming system is looking quite a bit more attractive, no?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Every heard of hands free devices? Usually its implemented via Bluetooth.
I'm my car I can press a button on the wheel, say "Call Wife Mobile" and it will call my wifes mobile phone. Never seeing or touching my phone.
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. We ridiculously harsh penalties when it comes to "distracted driving" (their words). I haven't heard of any province or state that has banned using your phone through a hands free device.
The claim that using a cellphone while driving is dangerous stems completely from the action of taking your hand(s) off the wheel, and eyes off the road. This is exactly what bluetooth hands free systems are designed for, and exactly why they are including it in more and more vehicles.
If you're curious, I drive a 2012 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD Luxury Edition... Bought it last July for about $22K (Canadian) with less than 50,000km on it.
I'll see your random AC comment and raise you one Pol Pot.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I've been seeing too many vehicles with flashing lights lately that didn't used to have them, from school buses and garbage trucks to mall cops. It's making true emergency vehicles, such as police/fire/ambulance not stand out as much as then used to.
Competition Good, Monopoly Bad.
This is a follow-up, not a duplicate.
Which given enough time will do absolutely zero for accidents. The problem isn't the handsfree, it is the fact you have someone paying more attention to what is being said on the other side of the phone call than actually what is happening around them. Driving should take up 100% of your attention.
All he has to do is claim he was acting in self defense to prevent an idiot driving while on a cell phone from causing an accident around him.
There is a saying we have in manufacturing that "local maximums make global minimums". Just because it is optimal for one part of the system doesn't mean it is globally optimal. His jamming activities could easily interfere with 911 or emergency broadcasts or ambulance transmissions or cell phones that have nothing to do with anyone driving. He's basically deciding unilaterally that his needs should be placed ahead of everyone else's. It's self indulgent and potentially dangerous. We regulate the airwaves and how people can use them for VERY good reasons. Reasons that are much more important than his little temper tantrum.
I can't say I disagree with why he did it
I disagree with why he did it. He could have easily jammed 911 calls, ambulance transmissions to hospitals, law enforcement, first responder requests/communications, etc. Not to mention all the people he blocked who were not driving, i.e. passengers. He unilaterally decided that his needs were more important than everyone else's. As far as I'm concerned he should see some jail time in addition to a huge fine. This is not a small deal.
From what I can tell, at any given time a huge fraction of drivers are either texting, or holding onto their phone and talking.
That's true but it doesn't give anyone the right to go all vigilante about the problem.
I feel bad for this guy,
I don't. He's a self indulgent asshole.
Around here, buses have a "don't talk to the driver unless stopped" sign in the front. Somehow I don't see the regular car driver being magically better at multi-tasking to deserve better.
Ezekiel 23:20
Fines like that don't stop Americans. Passing laws where the officer can punch you in the face, THAT will stop people from doing it. we are some of the stupidest people on the planet, we can't connect financial fines with our behavior, but physical pain will connect just fine.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
...this wouldn't be a story. The law did it's job and the man was fined, but there isn't a news article for every parking ticket.
The reason this is interesting is because the ethics of this part of the law are in question.
True, but then again all those folks who's calls get dropped are now distracted by trying to figure out what's going on, or reconnect. Not everyone has a fancy voice-command system to help out with that.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
This driver ignores texts received while driving. If it's important, they can place a voice call and I'll answer it using my bluetooth earpiece.
It's not that hard. Really, your phone is not your brain... you can put it to sleep while driving. It's OK, your friends can wait for you to get back to them with "OMG LOL!"
I can see the fnords!
He said he called his wife. He wasn't paying attention.
Just a dude. Stuck in IT.
No. Passenger conversations differ substantially from cell phone conversations, and prove far less distracting.
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
Hands-free sets don't help (or drinking from a travel mug while driving, for example, would have been banned long ago). The conversation with a party not in the vehicle is what is causing the problems. Note also that passenger conversations differ substantially from cell phone conversations, and prove far less distracting.
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
Barring Anguirel's post, this is not true for everyone. I've seen people drift while chewing gum, talking to people, looking in the rearview mirror, etc. Some people literally cannot do 2 things at once, with one of those being breathing.
For these types of people, a conversation with a passenger is no different than talking on the phone, or even having kids in the car. They will be distracted in all cases if there's anything at all that can catch their attention.
Other people, however, will tune a conversation out when driving conditions warrant it. They fall outside that distracted group. Part of this is realizing that no phone conversation requires catching everything the first time, and that asking for clarification or repetition is valid, since you're taking the call while driving in the first place.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
If this sounds like a typical firearm owner to you, you don't know many. Most you will never even know own a firearm.