A New York state senator is pushing legislation to ban the use of iPods, BlackBerrys and other mobile electronic devices by pedestrians while crossing a street.  Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) claims that the use of portable music devices and cell phones contributed to a number of fatal accidents involving walkers including the recent death of a 23-year-old iPod user who stepped into the path of a city bus.

From the CNET news article:

The bill would effectively make it illegal to use any kind of portable electronic device–a music or video player, cell phone, smart phone, gaming device, etc.–while crossing the street in cities such as New York, Albany and Buffalo. Offenders would be slapped with a $100 fine and a criminal court summons. Joggers and bicyclists would have to limit their iPod use to city parks in which no street crossing would be involved.

Of course, Sen. Kruger has no statistical studies to that show a dramatic increase in pedestrian-related accidents since the introduction of the iPod five years ago (not to mention the nearly 30 years we’ve had the Walkman), but he stands by his words.

“You can’t be fully aware of your surroundings if you’re fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy, or listening to music on an iPod,” Krueger said in a statement.

At first glance, I doubted this bill would have any chance of passing, but then again in recent years we’ve witnessed a N.Y. smoking ban and the prohibition of trans fats in restaurants.  So why does everyone want to live in New York City again?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 21:09 by Sho and is filed under Crime, Law, National, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.