The measure is supposed to be aimed at decreasing the number of injuries as well as the number of deaths because of the distracted walks. This measure will be taking an elect in the largest city of Hawaii in the month of October. Firstly, the offenders were caught to be gazing at their devices. The devices included laptop PCs, digital cameras, etc. they were fined from $15 to $35 (£11-£26). The urgent emergency call services are exempted from this ban.
It was signed off by Honolulu’s mayor named Kirk Caldwell this Thursday after the approval of the measure by the city council by a vote difference of 7-2.
Details of the Distracted Walking Law:
The new codification will come into effect on October 25. This legislation states that none of the pedestrians would be allowed to cross a street as well as any highway while using their mobile phone or any other digital device. The repeated offenders will have to face fines and their amounts would be up to ninety-nine dollars. The newly made law also has met a lot of opposition from some of the members of the common public. The government is being accused by those people of over-regulation.
Mr. Kirk Caldwell said that they held unlucky discrimination of being the main city with a greater number of pedestrians being hit in the pedestrian crossings. He mentioned his seniors particularly and told all these things to the news agency of Reuters.
Mr. Kirk Caldwell also said that he sometimes wished that there were laws that they were not required to pass, that probably in the future common sense would be prevailing. However, he said that sometimes they lacked common sense.
According to a report given by the United States National Safety Council, the incidents of distracted walking involving the Cell Phones were the cause of greater than eleven thousand injuries in the United States of America from the year 2000 to 2011.
There are chances that the recent figures of injuries and deaths would be higher than the previous ones. However, they have not been provided yet by the council in its latest reports.
Criticism of Ben Robinson:
The Honolulu law’s opponents made the arguments about the personal freedom. One of the residents named Ben Robinson said that the intrusive bill should be scrapped and more education should be provided to the citizens about the proper usage of the electronic devices. He also said that the law enforcement should have been allowed for focusing on the bigger issues.
