"not listening!"

[acroyear]

New York may ban iPods while crossing street - Yahoo! News:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine.

New York State Sen. Carl Kruger says three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district have been killed since September upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device. In one case bystanders screamed "watch out" to no avail.

Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street.

"Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry," Kruger said in a telephone interview from Albany, the state capital. "This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand."

I note he didn't say, "Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry from themselves." To have actually been honest about it would have shown that he doesn't take personal freedom as seriously as an elected official should.

Of course, if someone actually ran the stats and looked up the number of "walkman" pedestrian deaths over the last 25 years compared to the population as a whole, you'd probably find that just like deafness, the numbers are unchanged.  Stupid is, and trying to ban something like this isn't going to stop stupid.

Update: The /.'ers bring up a valid point.

• If the person was jaywalking when they were hit, then its their own fault anyways and they're already violating the law.
  
  but...
  
  
• If the person had the legal right of way when they were hit, then it wasn't their fault and the fact that they had the ipod on doesn't change the fact that they were hit by a vehicle that didn't give way.