Comment by zdragnar
3 days ago
In most cases, distracted driving is a secondary cause for a stop. Police need some other reason to pull the driver over.
That's what the hands free laws in most states addressed- using a cellphone while driving became a primary offense, something you could be pulled over for or ticketed for even if you hadn't done anything else wrong.
The ultimate goal is to stop people from distracted driving before they cause an accident, but it's not always easy to see who should be stopped and who shouldn't, so a lot of people get away with it anyway.
Police need some other reason to pull the driver over.
That is false. People get pulled over all the time for obvious distractions. Someone addicted to watching the hundreds of bodycam video channels.
Perhaps the cops in your area were told to focus on other things. The Sheriff in my area are somewhat like that whereas the state troopers will happily pull someone over that looks suspicious or has out of state plates distractions aside. Enforcement and abuse vary by location.
Of course, although I think pulling people over for such infraction makes things much more unsafe. What is learned is if you put your phone lower than the dash, it becomes a lot harder to prove. Of course, much harder to see the road while you're staring under your dash, but the optimization society has suggested is that if you use your phone you should do it in a more dangerous way so you aren't caught.