so in other words, keep making a hazard of yourself until you do cause an accident, then get out the checkbook.
Exactly.
Laws are based upon what
has happened and not on what
may happen. Murder is a crime but not until it happens.
But now we have all of these laws written in prior restraint of actual damage -- helmet laws, licensing, etc. -- which takes us into the realm of
"Minority Report" witch hunts. THESE ARE BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION LAWS.
Laws against distracted driving are not for safety. They are for revenue enhancement. In all things political, always follow the money.
One can be distracted yet cause no harm. The laws, written in prior restraint, criminalize the behavior in the absence of any harm being done. If one causes no actual harm, there should be no punishment. Yet these laws mete out punishment in the event of the
possibility of harm being caused and seek, in whatever manner they can describe to justify them, to prevent that harm from occurring. We all know that is impossible; because murders, burglaries, assaults, and other occurrences which actually cause real harm occur every day in the face of laws to the contrary.
The problem is that Americans are being, and have been, conditioned to accept these prior restraint laws for reasons such as the cost that the real harm, should it occur, incurs. If rights can be taken for their prohibitive cost, then all rights are on the table for eventual usurpation.
Prior restraint laws are bad law.