I personally am an advocate for the use of cell phones in general. They are a great safety device according to me. I can’t tell you how many times I have called 911 from my cell while driving. Well, I could if I really thought about it.
I have for example twice this week. I can say the one time was when I was going to get Kyra from Adam’s the guy that got off the exit ramp in front of me was obliviously intoxicated. He went ahead and just drove into the cement wall barrier of the highway.
Anyways, I also occasionally use my cell phone from my bus when there are no students on board. I never use it with students on board. This is a law just targeted to school bus drivers though making it a huge fine to talk on cell even when bus is empty of students.
It sort of makes me upset that they want to separate out school bus drivers or big truck drivers or any segregation for that part from general drivers for “special” rules. I mean I am okay with all the extra training requirements and such…to get the endorsements. I am okay with the yearly physical which basically is stupid and now they know I can squat. I am not okay though with special limits which general drivers hardly know of and that make the job more restricting.
These laws to me basically saying…you are responsible enough to watch 70 students while driving down the road, but how can you handle talking and driving. You can scream at kids while driving, but not whisper to a close friend through a phone. Does that make any sense??
Here is the PDF file.