Warren cops cite attorney for driving with headphones

Staff report

WARREN

A traffic violation handed to Atty. Michael Rossi on Tuesday demonstrates that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Rossi, of Warren, was pulled over for speeding at 11:52 p.m. on West Market Street, but the Warren patrolman also noticed that he was wearing headphones while listening to the radio.

The officer explained to Rossi that Ohio law prevents drivers from wearing earphones or earplugs while operating a motor vehicle.

He also explained the law does allow the use of one ear- phone, such as a Bluetooth system for a telephone or a hands-free headset.

Rossi was wearing headphones.

Rossi said Tuesday he found the situation embarrassing, but he doesn’t have a problem with the citation.

“I was wrong,” Rossi said, adding that he doesn’t regularly use the headphones but was using his wife’s car and was unfamiliar with the radio. He was listening to a Cleveland Indians game.

Greg Hicks, Warren law director, said the law was written so that drivers wouldn’t be prevented from hearing sirens, horns and other sounds that could prevent an accident.

Ear phone citations aren’t common, and usually they are written to teens who use them with a CD player or other similar device, Hicks said.

Ohio law exempts certain people from the law: a person wearing a hearing aid; law-enforcement personnel on duty; fire department personnel and emergency medical service personnel on duty; any person engaged in the operation of equipment for use in the maintenance or repair of any highway and any person driving a garbage truck.