CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Michelle Tetreault’s daughter didn’t know what “repent” meant when she spotted a man with a sign around his neck warning “Repent! The end is near!” But she’s plenty sorry now that her mom is facing a $124 traffic ticket for using her cellphone to snap a picture of the man.
The two were stopped at a red light in Somersworth last week when they saw the sign. Moments after Tetreault gave in to her 14-year-old daughter’s pleas to take a picture, she was pulled over and told the man with the sign was actually an undercover officer. She was ticketed for violating the state’s new law against using cellphones or other electronic devices while driving.
Tetreault, whose former brother-in-law died in a crash caused by a texting driver, said she never uses her phone while driving but didn’t realize the law also applies to vehicles at stop signs or lights. She plans to appeal the ticket.
“I just think it’s a stinky way to do it,” said Tetreault, whose experience was first reported by Foster’s Daily Democrat. “Granted, should I have said no to my daughter? Probably, yes. But I wasn’t even thinking of the law at the time.”
With more than 40 states banning text messaging for drivers and a dozen states prohibiting use of hand-held cellphones, police departments around the country are getting creative when it comes to enforcement. New York has given state police 32 unmarked SUVs to allow officers to better peer down at drivers’ hands. In California, officers with the San Bernardino police have posed as panhandlers with signs reading: “I am NOT homeless. SB police looking for seatbelt/cellphone violations.”