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NJ Legislator Proposes Fine For Walking While Phone-Distracted (philly.com)
schwit1 writes: A bill proposed this week by Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt (D., Camden) would impose a fine of up to $50 and possibly 15 days in jail for pedestrians caught using their cellphones without hands-free devices while walking on public sidewalks and along roadways. If the bill becomes law, 'petextrians' — people who text while walking — would face the same penalties as jaywalkers in New Jersey. From the article: Researchers say distracted walkers are more likely to ignore traffic lights or fail to look both ways before crossing the street. ... Lampitt said she wants that message to hit home in New Jersey for pedestrians and motorists who could easily be distracted while looking at mobile devices. Her bill, however, faces an uncertain future in the Legislature. It has not been posted for a vote and Lampitt acknowledged she might have a tough time getting it passed." Distracted pedestrians surely pose some risks, but they don't budge the needle compared to overbearing officialdom.
> If a distracted pedestrian, not obeying traffic laws gets mowed down, then that is on them, 100%. Driver walks away scot-free.
The law says that drivers yield to pedestrians, even jaywalkers. doesn't matter if they're distracted or not. In a pedestrian accident, the driver is at fault.
> If they cause an accident, they pay for damages, 100%. If they cause any financial hardship on anyone for their distractedness, they own it, 100%.
Not clear what you mean. typically when there is an accident, you asses the percent fault for each party and the monetary damages that occurred. Typically there is a payout according to these determinations.
In the case of a car accident, the driver is 100% at fault because of the law above. In the case of another type of accident, like a pedestrian is walking while distracted, and bumps into a ladder, knocking it over, and the ladder guy is injured, the pedestrian is at fault and should pay.
> Oh, but wait. That requires a society that recognizes personal responsibility and this is the US we are talking about here.
the rub that complicates these typical scenarios is the lawyer tax. regardless of who wins or loses, both parties pay a hefty lawyer tax, and the more complex and drawn out the litigation, the greater is the tax. This may cause the parties to negotiate responsibility and payments, regardless of who is at fault. Thus the american justice system is born.
The other responses in this thread list a few, including the classic: pedestrian steps out from between two parked vehicles into a stream of busy traffic moving at speed. An accident of some sort is extremely likely in that case and that's the sort of situation that inspired jaywalking laws to begin with. You don't need contrived gun-to-head scenarios unless you're being deliberately obtuse. A reasonably attentive driver doesn't have superhuman reflexes and the ability to change the laws of physics when maneuvering or braking a car. (Legally, a reasonably attentive driver is even allowed to be looking the opposite way or checking their mirrors or gauges for the second that it would take such a jaywalker to enter the stream of traffic.)
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
You don't have a driver's license, do you?
How about a driver is driving, well within the speed limit, past a dense row of parked cars, and a pedestrian previously hidden behind one of the cars (say, a van) just absent-mindedly walks from between the cars right into the road, right in front of the driver's car with no way for the driver to react? Hell, what if the distracted pedestrian actually walks into the driver's car as it's passing by, hits its side and gets smacked by the rear view mirror? I've had a few close calls similar to that (luckily the idiots never walked into the road that close to me, so I always managed to avoid hitting them). The only way to avoid that would be to either install some sort of "parked-car-penetrating radar" on my car to warn me about people I can't see, or to drive at a walking pace in places like that.
Or - and I know this is a radical thought - you could teach your goddamn kids to take care of themselves instead of relying on everyone else to work around them, and if you don't, I don't automatically go to jail if I hit them through no fault of my own, like I would in your batshit insane fantasy world you described earlier in this thread.