New York may ban 'iPod crossings'
updated 02:40 pm EST, Wed February 7, 2007
'iPod crossing' ban?
New York senator Carl Kruger today said he will introduce legislation to ban the use of gadgets such as iPods and Blackberry devices while crossing the street. "Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry," the senator said. "This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand." Under the proposed legislation, New Yorkers attempting to cross streets while using Blackberry devices, video games, or iPods will face a $100 fine. The proposed law comes following the deaths of three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district since September. The victims stepped into traffic while distracted by electronic devices, and in one case bystanders screamed "watch out" to no avail. "What's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles," Kruger said. "It's becoming a nationwide problem."












Goverments Responsibilty?
02/07, 03:20pm reply
Where is it written that a senator has the responsibility to keep me from walking in front of a moving bus? Due to the nature of self preservation, I would think the individual would be more suited to this task. On a political note, why do we Americans enjoy somebody else telling us what we can and cannot do? If we don't enjoy this, why do we tolerate it? From a Christian standpoint, pity the man of stupidity. If you are a darwinist, the bus took care of it for us. Has our personal self respect dropped so far as to think that we need government help in controlling our personal actions?
jameshays
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2003
Natural Selection
02/07, 03:25pm reply
It's called natural selection and has been going on for thousands of years.
russellb
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
I don't get this, either.
02/07, 03:38pm reply
Instead of educating people about personal responsibility, all we get is people such as this guy who wants to control where we WALK and what we're doing as we're WALKING.
This society has become increasingly ..... jeez, I don't even know what word it is I'm looking for that can completely encompass the idiocy that is what we're heading to.
Look, I propose, instead of judging everything based on right or wrong, we TEACH people to make decisions that will benefit themselves. Because, honestly, my idea of right may not be your idea of right, so instead of taking away personal responsibility, you're educating people to make choices they can ultimately live with.
For instance, fast/fatty/sugary food. Instead of trying to ban sodas and McDonald's and things like that, why not actually TEACH these kids what the benefits are of choosing a healthy lifestyle. But, for f***'S sake, let's leave it at that: a CHOICE.
Same thing with drugs, alcohol, food, smoking cigs, s**..... h***, this applies to anything controversial.
Basically, instead of making everything illegal, why not make everything legal and then make sure education is key while providing resources for people that ask for help?
People need to learn personal responsibility and then they can make their own decisions. Then, to make this work, you don't have law-makers screaming down at us, telling us our choices are wrong, no matter how much they disagree with our decisions.
Why is this so difficult a concept?
gambit23
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2004
seriously
02/07, 03:45pm reply
if you don't care enough about your life to look both ways when you cross a street in NYC, then you surely deserve what fortune brings you.
And maybe the problem isn't that people are on their ipods, maybe it's that people are driving CARS! CARS are much more dangerous than ipods, destroy the environment and serve almost no useful purpose. They could easily be replaced by trains or horses.
i hate this country sometimes. Can someone please show this senator a clue?
zaghahzag
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Aug 2006
Re: gov't responsibility
02/07, 03:49pm reply
Its not their responsibility. However, they end up paying for it when you get squished by a car and stuck in a state-funded hospital as a vegetable for the rest of your long yet dead-to-the-world life.
Or its not just you who's getting hurt. Because you're not paying attention to the road, and step in front of a car, that car has to stop short, which in turn causes a chain reaction that injures others. Or the car swerves out of the way of you, and runs over a mother and her three children (won't someone think of the children!) standing at the corner.
Then, there's also the trauma for the driver who has to live with the visiions of your bloddy face plastered against their windshield for the rest of their lives.
After that, its costs the drivers time and money in court, as they're sued by your relatives, being accused in a wrongful death suit.
And then the driver ends up suing apple, because if they didn't make such a good portable music player, you wouldn't have been so intent on using it to not see their car coming.
And then this drives in a whole series of articles on MacNN, which then drives various people to have to make hundreds of posts on how "everyone's suing Apple now that they're king of the hill!". In turn, these people will contract carpal-tunnel syndrome in their writing hands, and, in turn, sue your a** because you started the whole thing.
So, you see, they're just trying to help you stay out of court. Or, if you don't like that, they're just trying to keep Apple's lawyers from sucking the company dry from all the lawsuits.
So, either way, you should be glad!
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
why point out "iPod"?
02/07, 03:56pm reply
Why title the article "iPod crossings"? Seems pointless to sensationalize the article by putting a flashy buzz word like "iPod" in the title. If some half-wit wants to wander into traffic while using a handheld electronic device, then so be it. We need less idiots in the world.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
huh?
02/07, 04:36pm reply
let's see, people hauling a** down the road in 2,4, 6 thousand pound missiles while they talk on the cell phone and comb their hair and eat and... kill 40,000 in the us alone and permanently disable hundreds of thousands more and cause billions of $ in damange and.. he wants to make it illegal for pedestrians?
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
It's my right
02/07, 04:45pm reply
If I want to walk out in front of a bus while listening to the Fraggle Rock theme I oughta be allowed!!!!!!!!1
Tins
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2007
No more b****
02/07, 04:49pm reply
I think we should outlaw b**** because they distract me while I'm crossing the street listening to the fraggle rock theme and eating a burrito with sun glasses on at 8pm while crossing the street in front of a bus, and that distraction is DANGEROUS!
Tins
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2007
Seriously though
02/07, 04:56pm reply
Is anybody really going to miss a couple of idiots from brooklyn too stupid to look before crossing the street?
How about a law that says "look before you cross the street"? or better yet if you really want to do something ridiculous put signs at the intersections that say "look before you cross the street"?
Oh wait, to do that we would have to educate the brooklynites to a point that they were literate and to do that we would have to focus on eduation GOD FORBID!! Why don't we just amend the "No child left behind act" to the "No child allowed to walk around this free country listening to music because we were too stupid to make sure he/she wasn't too stupid to look before they crossed"!!!
Tins
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2007