Crossing the street while using \u201cmobile electronic devices\u201d could soon help the CNMI raise the funds it needs to repair roads. A House of Representatives committee has now approved a bill that intends to penalize pedestrians who cross streets while thumbing through their smartphones.<\/p>\n
Rep. Joseph \u201cLee Pan\u201d Guerrero (R-Saipan) through House Bill 21-51 is looking to impose fines on pedestrians who are caught crossing the road while they use handheld devices or mobile electronic devices that \u201ccauses impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill, if passed into law, will fine a person no less than $25 and no more than $50 for their first offense. Their second offense within one year will result in a fine of no less than $50 and no more than $100, while the third and succeeding offenses within the same year of the first offense will result in a fine of no less than $100 and no more than $150.<\/p>\n
Seventy percent of the collected fine will be deposited in a revolving fund that is separate from the general fund, and will be used for \u201ceducational and enforcement\u201d purposes while the remaining 25% will be used for proper signage fixtures and road, crosswalk, and lighting repair and maintenance.<\/p>\n
The House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee recommended at their July 29, 2019, meeting to put the bill on the floor for action at the next House session.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like with anything that deals with mobile cellular devices\u2026you put your life at risk when you do that [while driving or crossing the street]. It is a form of distraction and I support any legislation\u2026that will help save people\u2019s lives,\u201d committee chair Rep. Joel Camacho\u2019s (R-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want auto-pedestrian accidents to happen because the pedestrians are not paying attention to what is going on since they are distracted. If passed, we just hope it is a way of deterring people\u2026from [using their phones while crossing the street],\u201d Rep. Luis John Castro (R-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune in an interview.<\/p>\n
Camacho further clarified that this bill in no way affects the pedestrian\u2019s right of way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are caught using a mobile cellular device [while crossing], you will be penalized [but] the pedestrian right of way remains applicable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The House had just passed a similar bill but, instead of imposing penalties and fines on pedestrians using their cellular devices, it imposes penalties and fines on individuals who are caught using their cellphones while driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crossing the street while using \u201cmobile electronic devices\u201d could soon help the CNMI raise the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}