Under New York's hand-held mobile phone ban, and outside the emergency and official-duty exemptions, a driver may pick up the phone for which purpose?
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A.
To activate, begin, or end a call. Correct
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B.
To hold the phone against your ear during the entire call.
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C.
To browse contacts to find someone to call.
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D.
To read a text message at a red light.
The answer is "To activate, begin, or end a call."
The hand-held statute lets you pick up the phone for three narrow acts (to activate, begin, or end a call) and nothing else. Separate exemptions cover calls for emergency situations, and police and other law enforcement officers, fire department personnel, and operators of authorized emergency vehicles in the performance of official duties. Choice D is the trap if you carry the social 'red-light pause' habit into New York's texting statute, which makes it illegal to send or receive messages while driving and grants no stopped-in-traffic pause.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. To hold the phone against your ear during the entire call.
For an ordinary non-emergency call, the hand-held allowance covers only starting and ending the call; once the conversation begins, the phone must be hands-free. This answer reads the narrow start-and-end exception as blanket permission to keep the device in hand throughout the call.
C. To browse contacts to find someone to call.
The allowance names three acts (activate, begin, or end a call) and browsing contacts is not among them. This answer assumes any preparatory step tied to placing a call inherits the calling exception.
D. To read a text message at a red light.
New York's texting statute makes it illegal to send or receive text messages while driving, and the hand-held calling allowance does not extend to messages. This answer applies a social 'red-light pause' habit to a texting statute that carves out no stopped-in-traffic exception.
This question tests your knowledge of Distracted Driving in New York. Source: New York State Driver's Manual, "Using a Cellular or Mobile Telephone," p.52..
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