You gotta love modern technology!

2009-06-05T14:58:00.001-04:00

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - In less time than it took a North Brunswick patrolman to write a ticket for an unregistered vehicle, the driver got his car registered online Thursday. When officer Jason Zier pulled over a 1992 Mazda 626 on Thursday afternoon, the vehicle's registration had expired. By the time he'd finished writing up Sean Leach for the infraction, the car was legal again. That's because the 36-year-old Jersey City man had a cell phone, a friend with a computer who he could reach and the foresight to use the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission's online registration service. Leach's ingenuity did not save him from getting a ticket, but it did keep him from having his car towed — and getting socked with the towing bill. Zier pulled Leach over on Route 130 after noticing the sticker on his license plate was expired, the Home News Tribune reported for Friday. When Leach told Zier he had not gotten around to renewing his registration, the officer mentioned that drivers can register online, North Brunswick Police Department spokesman Capt. Donald Conry said. Leach took the renewal form the commission had sent him from his visor, which contained the access code he needed to renew. While Zier issued the summons and ordered the tow, Leach called a friend who took his credit card number and other information and renewed the registration for him, Conry said. When Zier came back with the ticket, Leach told him the car was now registered. The computer inside Zier's patrol car confirmed it. "It's immediate," Conry said.Zier canceled the tow truck — no longer needed since it was to tow an unregistered car off the road.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...e_registration

I learned a new word

2009-05-26T14:57:00.003-04:00

I learned a new word today.
Actually it’s more of an appalling, politically-incorrect neologism, but it’s new to me nonetheless.
“Hillbilly airbag”.
Explained in the kindest terms, it refers to someone driving a car while holding a child on their lap.
Sadly, the phrase exists not just because some insolent smart-aleck coined it but because there are idiotic drivers out there who actually do this: drive with a helpless, unprotected child wedged behind the steering wheel thereby placing everyone - the child, driver, other passengers and fellow motorists, at risk.
And yes, there are real-life examples of this besides that infamous incident a few years back when pop singer Britney Spears drove an SUV while holding her four- month old son on her lap.
In fact, recently a motorist in Ohio called the Kettering police department to report witnessing a woman driving a minivan while breastfeeding and talking on a cell phone.
The concerned citizen followed the multi-tasking mom to a local school where he awaited police while she discharged several other children from her vehicle.
A 39-year old woman was subsequently charged with the first-degree misdemeanour of child endangering, plus another minor misdemeanour for unlawfully restraining her child.
Police stressed their concern was that the woman had a child in her lap while driving and not that she was breast-feeding in public.
The accused admitted breastfeeding the child while driving and allegedly told police that she does not deprive her child when the child is hungry.
What’s that old adage? “Never assume malice where stupidity will suffice.”
This incident proves - once again, that just as the act of procreation doesn’t automatically endow one with good parenting skills, passing a driver’s licence test doesn’t necessarily guarantee the licencee possesses enough common sense or intelligence to safety operate a motor vehicle.
This was distracted driving in the extreme. Juggling babe, breast, steering wheel, and cell phone is dangerous and stupid and there’s absolutely no reason for it.
If that baby needed to be fed - as inevitably happens the moment you plunk a little one in a car seat, the woman should have pulled over somewhere out of harm’s way and fed the child - at which point she could have also made that all-important cell phone call.
So what if the other kids were late for school, better to be a tad tardy than dead or injured from a car crash.
If convicted on the child endangerment charge, the woman faces up to 180 days in jail and a maximum fine of $1,800. The unlawful restraint charge carries a fine of up to $150.
No surprise, she’s pleaded not guilty.
There is one small postscript to this story. In an audio file of the non-emergency call made to Ohio police and posted online by The Dayton Daily News, the complainant states that he’s following the minivan, has tried to speak to the woman, and further reports:
“She literally has the little girl on the steering wheel, and I said ‘I can't believe you have that kid in your lap’. And she said, ‘You want to pop your titty out and breastfeed this kid?’ That's what she said to me. I'm like, ‘You can feed your kid when you stop.’ ”
Okay, crass comments aside, and not to belittle what was definitely a legitimate safety concern, but given that this exchange apparently took place while these two were driving, one can’t help but wonder if the complainant wasn’t guilty of a little distracted driving of his own.
As far as I know though there isn’t a term that covers this, though perhaps “domino distracted driver effect” might work?

Test!

2009-05-16T00:54:00.000-04:00

Testing Linda's Blog.

Linda McAvoy

You gotta love modern technology!

I learned a new word

Test!