Our cell phone chatting driving lifestyle in British Columbia is now over. Yes, it’s a driving activity many of us do often. I’ve been asked already “what kind of hands-free cell phone device will I get?”

Our provincial government passed a law prohibiting the use of hand-held devices while driving.

Our kindly police officers have said they’ll give us all a break and won’t give out pricey tickets until February 1, 2010. It appears we have a “cooling off” period in BC.

Notice too, that not only do we get a 30 day grace period, but our law is a baby-step process applying to hand-held devices only. Yes, we can still use hands-free devices. Bring on the headsets and voice recognition. Many other jurisdictions enacted the full ban that applied to hand-held and hands-free devices.

The new law prohibiting hand-held devices comes with a price – a ticket price that is. If you get caught using your hand-held device, it’ll cost you $167.

If you have a learners or a novice licence, you’re really stuck without a chatting option. The new law mandates that both hand-held and hands-free devices are denied to you.

So why the new law that will no doubt impede our driving lifestyle where we evade driving boredom by conversing our entire commutes? Death, destruction, widows, orphans, and injury.

Our government last fall was persuaded that the number of accidents, many of which were catastrophic, caused by negligent driving as a result of using some device was simply too high to let our distracted, but not-bored driving lifestyle continue.

It’s probably going to be a hard habit for many people to break. We have a bonus month; but I can envision just how difficult it’ll be not to answer that ringing phone while cruising down the highway.

With mobile phones practically becoming the new personal computer, this type of law will probably get drivers to again focus on driving rather than working and being entertained.

Learn more about Surrey criminal attorneys at our site where you can find out all about our criminal driving attorneys and what we can do for you.

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