In early March of this year, New Hampshire lawmakers introduced a bill which would bar the use of handheld cellphones by drivers. After a similar proposal was struck down five years ago, the state did enact a negligent driving law. While police cannot pull someone over for using a cellphone, eating, or reading the newspaper, a driver can be ticketed for having engaged in a behavior that caused a collision or contributed to obvious reckless behavior. Fines start at $250.
While many feel that the compromise legislation is sufficient, Christine Dwyer of Portsmouth would disagree. Dwyer was badly injured when a 16-year-old girl hit her from behind while talking on a cellphone while driving. There are hundreds of similarly anecdotal stories about the dangers of cellphone use while driving. Cellphones offer several opportunities for distraction; there's dialing and texting as well as simply talking. In November 2006, Justin Contreras veered into oncoming traffic on Route 111 while merely reaching to pick up his ringing cellphone. His passenger and the driver of another vehicle were seriously injured. Contreras was charged with negligent driving and three counts of misdemeanor vehicular assault.
In April 2006, the National Highway Safety Administration released a study which monitored 100 drivers for more than a year with video cameras and sensors. While not the riskiest observed behavior, the study found that the most common distraction was cellphone use. More crashes were attributable to CD handling, reading, and applying makeup. However, such activities happened less frequently and were therefore responsible for fewer total crashes.
Ownership and use of cellular telephones grows every year. Therefore, the number of automobile accidents that will be caused by negligent use of a cellphones by distracted drivers is more-than-likely to increase. While I applaud New Hampshire for being one of only three states to have any sort of general 'distracted driver' law on the books, that law only penalizes a driver after the damage has been done. House Bill 795 could potentially prevent accidents by giving police leeway to cite drivers exhibiting poor cellphone use judgment. While the Bill addresses only one type of driver distraction, the sooner the growing use of cellphones by drivers is addressed, the more lives will be saved.
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2 comments:
I say we don't stop at cellphones. Drving while eating, drinking, reading the newspaper, smoking a cigarette, etc. Why is one distraction worse than any other?
i concur, and therefore take the contrarian position and agree only with the after-the-fact distracted driver law.
Many distractions already occur when driving; car operation is about the only motorized vehicle license process that does not require many hours of initial training and reinforcement training ; everyone on the road is an amateur, and as such, risky behavior is to be expected.
Either grant police blanket authority to use proactive discretion when observing distracted driving behavior--which already is in place in most jurisdictions--or make harsher the punishment for distracted driving incidents: license revocation and at least four-figure fines is a good start.
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