Instead, what this will lead to is cops hassling young black and hispanic kids at 2am on the phone trying to figure out which club to head to next and when there aren't any cars on the road anyway. They'll get the usual stop and frisk and probably get busted for pot possession (which means they spend 3 or 4 days in Rikers, pay a $90 fine and cost the system a few thousand to process them).

There's a law of unintended consequences that Sen. Kruger needs to learn. This will not stop pedestrian accidents, and the public will learn that quickly. The backlash against anyone who supports this is likely to be strong.

Just like when they tried to make it a crime to have your cell phone ring in a theater, this infringes on people's privacy in ways that nobody is considering yet. Nobody wants to be walking down fifth ave while on the phone and haiving to pause the conversation at every corner. Nor will the cops want to enforce such stupidity, jusy as they don't enforce jaywalking now (which, incidentally, probably leads to more accidents than ipods). Of course, if you are jaywalking with your ipod on, you're really just asking for it.

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to get their head, or at least their common sense, examined. And any minority legislator who supports this will hear about it from their constituents.