California requires people using a cell phone while driving to use a hands-free device. Now, the state’s governor has had to tell his wife that the law applies to her, too.
Celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs and a video showing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, driving a large SUV while holding a cell phone.
On his Twitter feed, Schwarzenegger wrote to TMZ, “Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There’s going to be swift action.”
The governor’s office clarified that “swift action” meant he’ll ask his wife not to hold the phone while driving.
Schwarzenegger signed a law that took effect in July 2008 that requires California drivers to use a hands-free device when talking on cell phones in vehicles.
Since then, the California Highway Patrol has issued more than 150,000 citations. That doesn’t include tickets from local police departments.
If she’d been caught by police, Shriver would have owed about $300 for two violations.
Schwarzenegger has praised the cell phone law, saying he warned his teenage daughter that if she ever violated it, “she’ll be taking the bus.”
Schwarzenegger’s restatement of support for the law comes within a week of President Obama’s signing of an Executive Order prohibiting federal employees from using hand-held electronic devices while driving on the job.
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