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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WI Drivers: A Few Seconds Can Change Your Life

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Monday, April 9, 2012   

GREEN BAY, Wis. - April is National Distracted Driving month, and a timely new Wisconsin law will be published on Wednesday. AB 291 prohibits drivers under 18 with probationary licenses and instruction permits from using cell phones and other wireless handheld devices. The law will take effect in November.

Green Bay attorney Ed Vopal, president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, says a few seconds of distraction can change your life.

"Accidents can happen very quickly on the roadway because the situation is always changing. Even a brief lapse of attention can place a driver, his or her passengers, and other users of the roads in very serious danger."

Vopal says drivers, particularly younger drivers, often make poor choices behind the wheel.

"One of the definitions I've read about distracted driving is 'distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving.' That's from www.distraction.gov."

Distractions can be visual (taking your eyes off the road), manual (taking your hands off the wheel) or cognitive (taking your mind off the road). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that distracted driving is responsible for more than 5,000 deaths and close to half a million injury accidents in the U.S. every year. Cell phone use is attributed to 18 percent of the fatalities in distraction-related crashes.

During National Distracted Driving month, hundreds of attorneys will speak at schools and community gatherings about the human and financial toll of distracted driving. Vopal says their message will be clear.

"Distractions are potentially dangerous when operating a motor vehicle. We are trying to get the public - people who operate motor vehicles on our highways - to understand and appreciate that even momentary diversions of attention on the roadway can lead to very serious and devastating consequences."

Wisconsin law prohibits texting while driving, but according to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of all teens say they have been in a car while the driver was texting.





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