Friday, 09/15/2006 Print Version |
Transcript of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Signing Legislation Requiring Drivers to Use Hands Free Devices
Time: 11:15 a.m.
Date: Friday, September 15, 2006
Event: Oakland Hilton, California Room, 1 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Hello, everybody. It’s great to be here in Oakland. And first, before I talk about the bill signing, I just want to give you some good news, because I just heard this morning that California in August has created 37,000 new jobs. Now, just to show you how huge this is, and how fantastic this is, the rest of country, the whole United States, created 125,000 jobs. So we’re talking about California is creating almost 30 percent of all the jobs in the entire nation. So as you can see, the economy is back again, it’s booming. Our revenues every month are much greater than anticipated. So I’m very excited about that.
Now let’s get to the bill. Today we will be signing SB 1613. This is the hands-free cell phone bill that will save lives by making our roads safer. And I want to say thank you to Senator Simitian for his great, great work on this bill and for working with my office on this bill to perfect the bill. I want to thank him also for his great commitment to (IA) California, and to make our roads safe. He has been really extraordinary, to protect the people of California and I want to say thank you for that.
The simple fact is that it is really dangerous when you talk on your cell phone and drive at the same time. Hand-held cell phones are responsible for 1,000 accidents every month, and we have seen that there are very dangerous situations sometimes. We want to avoid that, and this is why we have here this bill. This bill doesn’t mean that you can’t talk on a cell phone; it just means that you should not hold a hand-held cell phone, you should use a headset or use a speaker system.
Also, there is an exception here that if you have to make an emergency call, then you can use the hand-held phone. And also, what is important is that this law will go into effect on July 1 of 2008. There will be a $20 fine if you’re caught the first time using a cell phone, and then $50 after that.
I think it is very important for people to know that even though the law begins in 2008, July of 2008, stop using your cell phones right now, because you’re putting people at risk. You just look away for a second, or for a split second, from what’s going on in front of you, and at that moment a child could be running out, and you could kill this child just because you were busy looking down and dialing on your cell phone. So pay attention to that, take this seriously. We want to really save lives here.
Thank you very much again, and now I would like to have Senator Simitian come out and say a few words, please.
SENATOR SIMITIAN:
Thank you all very much for being here today. And some of you know, but perhaps not all of you, that this is the sixth hands-free cell phone bill I’ve introduced during the past six years. The question I’ve been asked quite frequently of late is, “Why did you keep introducing the bill?” And the answer is really very simple. I introduced the bill because I believe it will save lives. It’s just that simple. You’ve got a readily available technology that costs next to nothing and saves lives. Why on earth wouldn’t we use it?
This bill isn’t a perfect solution, it isn’t a total solution, but it is a significant and important improvement over the current state of affairs, and it will save lives, and that was the goal from Day 1.
I want to offer a couple of thank yous. Obviously, a thank you for the Governor for signing the bill today. You may have noticed, I positioned myself between the Governor and the exit. That was not by accident. I wanted to make sure we got this thing done after six years.
But I also want to thank two folks tremendously who are here today as well. Six years ago, when I first introduced the hands-free cell phone bill, I had exactly two supporters on the list of folks who were prepared to stand up and say this is a good idea. One of them was the driving schools of California. That’s not a surprise, perhaps.
But the other was Verizon Wireless. And from Day 1 Verizon Wireless has been the only cell phone service provider who has supported the bill, and they were with us from the first day, and they are with us here today. I want to thank the company for being a good corporate citizen and for understanding that there was nothing inconsistent with keeping folks safe on the road and doing business in California.
Also, I thank the folks who are here from Palm. Palm, as it happens, is the largest manufacturer of cell phones. I think it’s their Clio product that we’re all familiar with here in California. They were a recent arrival, but they picked up the phone -- I don’t know if we (IA) through otherwise -- and said, “Hey, we’d like to be supportive of your effort, we see what you’re doing, we think it makes sense,” and I was very pleased to have their support as well.
So, my thanks to the Governor for signing the bill today. My thanks to all those who supported the bill over these past many years. As we go forward, I really do think we’re going to have a safer California. As I said, we can’t cure all the distractions on the road, but we fix the problems we can fix. And in this case, the CHP data has told us for five years in a row, cell phones are the No. 1 cause of distracted driving accidents. Over the last couple of years they’ve looked to see if hands-free would really make a difference, and they came back and told the legislature and the Governor, 15 times as many accidents with hand-held cell phones as when folks are driving hands-free.
Governor, again, my thanks. I want to turn it over now to somebody who actually has to deal with this problem on a daily basis. Chief Teresa Becher, who is the CHP Chief for the Golden Gate region, has a few words about her daily experience in trying to keep the road safe given the current challenges we face. Chief?
CHIEF BECHER:
Thanks for moving the mike down, too. I’m proud to be here today for the signing of this bill. It represents a collaborative effort between the legislature, the Governor, Verizon and the many backers and traffic safety officials throughout the state, to make the roadways of California a safer place to drive.
Statewide, collisions caused by distracted drivers result in countless hours of roadway delay, congestion, injury and death. This legislation is another useful tool for law enforcement to curb the growing number of collisions caused either partially or wholly by distracted drivers.
Prior to this cell phone law going into effect, the CHP plans a major public education campaign to ensure the public is aware of the changes. Education is a major focus for the CHP, because public awareness of the issue and voluntary compliance wtih this new law can have a significant impact on crashes even before the new law goes into effect. The Governor is exactly right. Start now.
Our goal is to have all drivers in the state keep both hands on the wheel and have the attention and awareness so that they can navigate (IA) driving environment. It is always incumbent on drivers to drive attentively. Many devices and activities taking place inside today’s vehicles can cause that split second distraction that may result in an unnecessary traffic collision. Cell phones are among the more prominent of these distractions.
And finally, thanks to all in the creation and implementation of this bill. The California Highway Patrol supports this new legislation as part of our No. 1 goal, to prevent traffic collisions and to save lives. Thank you.
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
GOVERNOR: Any questions about this, please?
Q: Governor, why the delay of a year and a half (IA) before this goes into effect?
GOVERNOR: Maybe the Senator can answer that better than I could.
SIMITIAN: Thank you. Well, the year and a half delay is designed to serve a couple of different purposes.
No. 1, it will give the public plenty of chance to learn about the new law, and as you heard, to be the beneficiary of the public education program planned by the CHP.
No. 2, it gives the DMV time to change their driving handbook and to get their website updated.
And No. 3 -- and I think this is perhaps the most important reason -- this technology is (IA) response. 37 million Californians are going to go hands-free. We’ve already got a range of great products that can meet the hands-free requirement, and over the course of a year and a half the market folk will come forward with more products, more convenient products, cheaper products and better products. That will make the change into the new an even better one, in my judgment.
Q: (IA)
GOVERNOR: Well, no, not really, because I have, for instance, a speaker system in my car, and I have the recall button, and I push this one button, you know, (IA) I don’t have to look away for that. But what happens so many times is, as the Senator and I, we have talked about it -- when you drive on the road you probably see -- you look over next to you at a driver. You know, if they’re busy, they’re looking down and they are dialing, and all of that. I mean, every single time -- and we all have been in this situation, where you almost had an accident because you looked away, because you talked to talk to someone. And the cell phone really makes you very busy, because you’re looking for their number, you’re trying to get it to your ear, and you do all kinds of business with your cell phone, with the hand-held.
But what we’re saying basically is, you don’t have to stop talking on your cell phone. You can use your cell phone, but use a headset or use a speaker system, and you will be fine. And I’ve been doing that for a long time now, and it works much better, and I have never felt like I was endangering anyone because of that.
Q: (IA)
GOVERNOR: No, but I said, like with the recall, it’s a special button, and you don’t have to worry about holding the phone and looking down and doing all those kinds of things. So it is much better.
Q: (IA) of the meeting, are you satisfied that most of these jobs are decent jobs that pay decent wages and have health benefits?
GOVERNOR: Well, the most important thing is we get everyone to work. And when I ran for governor three years ago I always said that I’m going to turn the economy around, that we’re going to do everything possible to bring people back to work. The month before I was elected, 23,000 people still were losing jobs. And now, this is a huge turnaround, if you think about in the month of August to create 37,000 jobs.
You know, these are different jobs. They are high paying jobs, they are low paying jobs, they are medium paying jobs, and all kinds of different jobs. What it basically means is a reflection that our economy is booming. California is doing extremely well.
And I think the idea of giving the people back -- because as you remember, when I came into office they increased the car tax just before I was elected governor. So that was 4 billion dollars that we basically give back to the people of California every year. So that’s now, after two and a half years, 10 billion dollars we gave back to the people of California. So that’s the biggest break for low-income and for medium-income people.
And then, on top of that, we reformed Workers’ Compensation, and that saves another 10 billion dollars for the private sector. What did they do? They used that money to expand their companies, to expand business, buy new equipment, and hire more people. And that’s what we see the 37 million dollars -- I mean the 37,000 jobs that we see is a creation because of that.
So I think our system has worked, and our strategy has worked, and I’m very happy about that. And as I said earlier, when we signed the bill for the minimum wage increase, the hardworking people of California, they do that. The companies, the hardworking people, they make this all happen.
Yes?
Q: (IA) signing Senator Speier’s bill, SB 440, to protect consumers against fraudulent charges on their cell phone bill? Will that be another bill you’ll be signing?
GOVERNOR: To be honest with you, I haven’t seen that bill yet. But I mean -- no. I sign every day approximately, I would say, 100 bills, and I go through it very thoroughly, and I sit there for many, many hours every day. Like yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my office for 4 hours straight, working on these bills. So that’s what I do, that’s what September is all about. And so I don’t get them all down in one shot, and then I have to get to read them, I go through -- but that particular bill hasn’t come down. So as soon as that will come down I can deal with it and read through it.
Q: Governor, (IA) in support of this bill you talked about your daughter and how you didn’t want her -- did you guys talk about it? And what did you tell her when you were going to sign the bill?
GOVERNOR: Well, she -- my daughter is very much aware of my dislike of hand-held cell phones. And I have told her when she got the car -- this was a half year before then -- she got her car, and I said to her, “If I ever catch you driving holding a cell phone, the car is gone for years. You will never see this car, for years.” And so I said, “I will be driving sometimes behind you and you will not know, and I will be spying on you without you knowing, and if I catch you I will (IA) the car.”
I made it very clear that this is because I’m really concerned, like every parent is, about a young kid starting to drive. So I want to make sure. It’s already challenging enough (IA) so I want to make sure that we take all the obstacles away. I told her also if I ever catch her drinking in the car, if I catch you eating in the car, if I catch you making a phone call on a hand-held cell phone in the car, her car is gone. It’s that simple.
I’m very tough on that, because I want to protect my daughter, and I want to protect other people. Not so much the person in the car, because I know, I’ve seen this situation. You just turn to somebody on the right side of you when you drive, to just answer a question, and you look back, and all of a sudden you see someone in front of you crossing the street. So you’ve got to be very, very careful in the traffic, and you’ve got to take this seriously.
Q: (IA)
GOVERNOR: Pardon me?
Q: You haven’t caught her yet?
GOVERNOR: I haven’t’ caught her yet. No, and I don’t think I ever will catch her, because she knows I mean it. Yes?
Q: Are you satisfied that your computer was not hacked, that your audio was not stolen? Do you accept now that it was a mistake of your office to have posted a controversial audio file?
GOVERNOR: I don’t get involved in anything else but governing. I govern. I want to create jobs for the people of California, I want to create more revenues, I want to have more money for education. Those are the kinds of things that I am interested in, not all the other stuff.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
