Residents are uninformed and unclear about new law

Maine has passed a new law that seems to have many of its residents confused. Many people are referring to the new failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle law as the distracted driver law. This is incorrect wording. Maine has passed no such law to prohibit the driver from being distracted, but rather to help discourage distractions and raise awareness.

The new law, which will be added to the books shortly, is article 2117. The law says, if a driver is stopped for a traffic violation, or gets into an accident while distracted, they can be assigned an additional $50 fine for failure to control their motor vehicle.

Many residents are under the impression that they are no longer able to be distracted at all while driving. Word of mouth has many people thinking it now is illegal to do such things like applying make up, talking on the phone, texting or being distracted in any way. While police feel that driving requires ones full attention, they do understand that some people may be able to keep their vehicle in control even while talking on their cell phone, or texting. This law was enacted to help raise awareness about how distracted driving does cause accidents.



Many people feel that the media could have done a better job reporting and explaining what the law really states. Residents said that most of what they heard about the law came from word of mouth rather than from an actual news source. Most people said they didn’t even hear about the new law in the news and if they did, there wasn’t a clear explanation of what it really states.



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