Peninsula Daily News and The Associated Press
If you’re driving while talking on the cell phone without a headset or other hands-free device, it could be an expensive phone call.
Try $124.
Beginning Tuesday, $124 is the cost of the fine if you’re ticketed on the streets and highways of the North Olympic Peninsula — or elsewhere in Washington — for having the cell phone at your ear.
“When you’re driving, you need to be driving,” said Washington State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste.
“We’d prefer that drivers didn’t talk on their cell phones at all. But if you must, please stay safe by using a headset or speaker-phone,” he said.
Like the texting ban that took effect last Jan. 1, the cell phone ban will be a “secondary enforcement offense” — meaning you must be pulled over for violating something else.
The phone infraction doesn’t appear on your driving record and isn’t reportable to employers or insurance companies.
But troopers or other law enforcement officers will not hesitate to cite a driver for talking on a cell phone if they first see a car weaving across lanes or doing something else wrong, Batiste said.
“The key is whether the device is held up to the ear,” he said.
“That’s what they will be watching for.”
A total of 12 tickets were issued statewide between January and June of this year for texting while driving, according to State Patrol statistics.
