[Elecraft] Headphone police

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Where those rules usually come into play is when a collision occurs. In some
jurisdictions, if one driver had the radio on full blast, was wearing
headphones, or was using a telephone, he/she is at fault, regardless of
other factors.  

When I lived in California some years ago, any driver with a cell phone in a
collision had his/her phone record checked. If the phone had been in use at
the time of the collision, that driver was charged with the collision
automatically, even in cases where the OTHER driver was drunk or had run a
red light and smashed into the car with the driver on the phone. The theory
was that if the driver on the phone had been paying full attention to
operating the vehicle, he/she might have avoided the collision in spite of
the other driver's error. The person who was intoxicated or who ran the
signal light might get charged for that offense, but the blame for the
accident lay with the person holding the cellular phone.

This isn't new. There was a lot of discussion about it in the 1950's when I
was a new Ham. The question then was whether it was possible for a driver to
handle a microphone while driving safely. There was a strong movement then
to ban all use of a two-way radio by someone driving a motor vehicle.  

The trick is to be safe and never do anything that *someone else* might
think would distract you from driving. Proving that your attention or
reactions were in no way impaired can be very tough. 

Ron AC7AC