A bill banning drivers under 18 from using cellphones passed the California Assembly today. It doesn’t even allow hands-free device use. The Highway Patrol asked for, and got, the offense classified as a secondary infraction, which means you can’t get pulled over simply for breaking this law.

We don’t quite understand this bill because talking on your cellphone is unsafe at any age, even though we all do it. The only thing we can think of is that the bill’s author, Joe Simitian, is on a quest to, piece by piece, effectively outlaw cellphones in cars all together. This July another one of his bills went into effect, which required all California drivers to use hands-free devices when chatting it up on the road.

Assembly OKs teen-driver cell phone ban [Mercury News]
(Photo: Getty Images)

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