iPod the law and the law won
The new Road safety and traffic law is already proving to be a positive thing. Here are some of the life-saving changes:
No cell phones while driving, unless it’s hands-free.
Lights must be on always, even during the day when it’s bright.
Bicyclists and motorist must always wear a helmet.
And so on, there are too many changes to mention here, most of them are reasonable and justified, copies of the articles from the EU countries adjusted for the Serbian roads.
But there’s still one article in it that puzzles public on various forums, blogs and social networks more than other:
Article 96 states that a pedestrian, while crossing the street, must not use a cell phone nor have headphones in/on both ears. This does seem unusual – I tried to google and find out if there’s a similar article in other countries’ laws but to no luck. I was hoping some of the readers might be able to shed some light on this. Are there such rules/laws in other countries? What do you think of this rule?
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Even in the old law you had a similar article which stated that when you ride a bicycle you mustn’t listen to the music and fines were even different if you had one earplug in/on or 2 earplugs.
All in all pretty strange.
When it comes to bicycling with headphones, I can definitely see the point in such a rule, and such laws do indeed exist in other countries. I am wondering about headphones while walking and crossing the street.
Good Serbian example for the rest of us – people here wander around with their iPods earplugs in a state of complete disconnection from the world around them – I’ve seen a number of near-accidents. With one ear-plug rather than two you’re distracted but you’ve still got some sense of being in contact.
But although car lights on during the day may be good for drivers they’re are dangerously distracting for pedestrians – when you’re crossing the road one set of lights can keep your attention and make you less aware of everything else you need to be alert to. Volvos that have their lights on all the time, presumably to comply with Scandinavian legislation, are particularly bad.
Royal National Institute for the Deaf are lobbying for decibel control on MP3 players. A friend of mine has tinnitus after five years with his. What about Serbia?
This is typical for Serbian laws. Lots of good things then creamed with few glaring stupidities. Same as with legal obligations that I, as buyer, must take a receipt from the store and have it me at least 100m from the store.
Bewildering, but true.
Who ever came up with this nonsense is total idiot. I, as pedestrian, on zebra crossing, am absolute God. Every single damn car/bycicle/whatever must stop. This is pedestrians area and pedestrian rule there. If I cross the street outside the marked area and got hit, it’s my fault, regardless of the headphones.
Utterly dumb law article.
Apparently, the same law was introduced, or tried to be introduced in New York state senate (http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/carl-kruger/legislation, look for S901).
Other than that, I couldn’t find any other reference. In all fairness though, I’m sort of fine with those provisions… A pedestrian who is not careful may cause a havoc at an intersection. Though I would like to see some data confirming that headphones or cell phone cause accidents. It would make most sense to have penalties for headphones/cell phone IF you are crossing on red or outside of a crosswalk.
It’s rather stupid law IMO.
Oh, and that’s a smart title
Why have lights on during the day? What purpose does that serve? I understand having lights on when it rains during the day….
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