Locally, in Malibu, no ban has been suggested.
By David Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times
In little more than a decade, the cell phone clearly has become the most important advance in communication since the invention of the telephone itself. Just about anywhere in the world today – even in places where the basic form of transportation is still a mule – everyone sitting, walking, riding or driving seems to be talking on a cell phone. Whether the person is a soccer mom who needs to keep in touch with her children, a top executive who needs to be informed of the latest business events or a teenager idly chatting away, millions around the world now take them for granted.
Some say, too much for granted. The number of drivers weaving through traffic while talking away on their cell phones is beginning to resemble an epidemic, and a potentially deadly one at that. Only last week a 5-year-old girl was killed in North Carolina when a truck rear-ended her school bus. The driver said looking for his cell phone distracted him. In fact, according to a survey by the Insurance Research Council, 91 percent of Americans believe cell phones increase the likelihood of an accident.
According to a survey conducted by Harvard a few years ago, some 6 percent of traffic fatalities (nationally) were attributable to cell phone use. That number seems high to Officer Ricardo Quintero, a CHP spokesman-at least for California. Out of 562,000 traffic-related crashes in California in 2001, Quintero said distracted drivers caused 51,000. And of that total, drivers distracted by cell phone use caused 850. Other “distracted driver” crash causes: 768 accidents from adjusting the car’s sound system; 259 from eating while driving; 166 from reading; 115 from smoking; 76 from pets in the car and 28 from personal hygiene activities including shaving or brushing teeth while driving.
Many states have scrambled to find a solution but, to date, only New York has actually banned their use while driving, except for emergencies. A similar plan for California, introduced by State Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-21), has been stalled in Sacramento for three years. Local communities have also gotten into the act; Simitian’s hometown, Palo Alto, is presently considering a ban and, three weeks ago, several members of the Los Angeles City Council proposed a ban similar to New York’s. The problem, however, is enforcing such a law. In the case of Los Angeles, since the city borders, and in many cases, surrounds other municipalities presently without a cell phone ban, how would a driver know when talking on the phone was legal or illegal? Santa Monica, in fact, scrapped a similar idea three years ago. (Malibu City Manager Katie Lichtig said no such ban has been suggested locally.) Also, L.A. Councilman Bernard C. Parks, the former police chief, has brought up the potential of broader problems arising from such laws, suggesting that the city should “proceed cautiously in developing legislation that dictates personal conduct in vehicles.”
To avoid potential chaos created by a checkerboard of conflicting laws, Florida, when recently confronted with a similar situation, has forbidden its 435 incorporated municipalities to go it alone. The state decided to live with its present law allowing cell phone use if the sound is going into only one ear, allowing the other ear to pick up surrounding sound. That is basically the way cell phone headsets work, which suggests a probable long-range compromise.
Nevertheless, because people are being injured and killed by distracted cell phone users, law or no law, the authorities are obligated to finding a way to control the problem. What is being done in California – at least until the state comes up with a solution that a majority can agree on – seems to be an ingenious compromise. There is a law on the books prohibiting driving at an unsafe speed. A person can’t be stopped specifically for using a cell phone while driving, but if a person is driving erratically while using a phone they may be stopped for driving at an unsafe speed. The logic being, as Officer Quintero explained it, if you are driving in a distracted manner, any speed is unsafe. Ergo, you can be cited, and fined, for driving at an unsafe speed.