‘Toughest law’ on texting profiled

The New York Times is featuring Utah’s anti-text messaging law for motorists, in which violators face up to 15 years in prison if a fatality results from their distracted driving.

The Times calls Utah text-messaging ban “the nation’s toughest law to crack down on texting behind the wheel.”

State Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, says: “It’s a willful act. If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.”

The Times noted:

Treating texting behind the wheel like drunken driving raises complex legal questions. Drunken drivers can be identified using a Breathalyzer. But there is no immediate test for driving while texting; such drivers could deny they were doing so, or claim to have been dialing a phone number.

The Times report ties creation of the law to a 2006 wreck caused by a text messaging student, in which two scientists died.

International cell phone law roundup

English road safety group Brake is pushing for an expansion of the country’s ban on drivers’ use of handheld cell phones, with hands-free mobiles outlawed as well. “It’s time that our politicians took note and put an end to the ridiculous situation where using a hand-held mobile is banned, but using hands-free isn’t,” said Ellen Booth, campaigns officer.

The U.K. Home Office reports that in 2009, about 116,000 tickets were handed out for mobile phone use while driving. The number is off 30% from two years ago, the Telegraph reported May 5, 2010. Meanwhile, cell phone use by motorists was up 27%. A spokesman for Brake, the road safety group, said: “This is clearly a law which is being flouted and isn’t being enforced to a degree that actually makes people think that they are going to get caught.”

New Zealand’s ban on text messaging and using handheld cell phones while driving went into effect Nov. 1, 2009. Police report high compliance with the New Zealand cell phone/texting ban early on. Use of cell phones with hands-free devices is permitted. Fines are $80 and include 20 demerit points.

“There are a lot of other distractions while driving but hand-held mobile phone use has grown to become a significant problem,” Transport Minister Steven Joyce said. The New Zealand Herald reported there 482 injury crashes and 25 fatal accidents in the country between 2003 and 2008. Update: The government has agreed to allow use of mobile phones as GPS devices while driving.

Trinidad and Tobago are cracking down on drivers’ use of cell phones — and the motorists won’t be able to watch movies either. Minister of Works and Transport Colm Imbert is seeking legislation to ban both activities. He said March 31, 2009, that the remaining issue with Trinidad’s cell phone law was whether to allow hands-free operation of cell phones. The law is expected to go into effect by October 2010. “Certainly, the current scenario, where drivers have a cell phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, should be a thing of the past before the end of the year,” Imbert said. Video viewing would be allowed for passengers in the back seat, according to the plan.

Police in Scotland wrote 180 tickets for driving and using wireless devices on Feb. 25, as a one-day national crackdown on distracted driving. Among those ticketed: A bus driver reading text messages while crossing through a city center.

Bermuda’s opposition party is calling for a ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving. The island has a twist on the usual distracted driving issues. Shadow Transport Minister Michael Fahy explains: “The phenomenon of the use of cell phones on bikes seems to be almost unique to Bermuda, where we constantly see people texting whilst driving their bikes, or a phone shoved in a helmet. It is only a matter of time before serious injury or death results from this poor driving habit.” Members of the ruling party seemed to agree, according to the Royal Gazette. Bermuda is a British territory located about 650 miles off North Carolina. The United Kingdom banned handheld cell phone use while driving in 2003.

Great Britain’s Labour party deputy leader was fined £350 after pleading guilty to backing her car into a parked vehicle while talking on a handheld cell phone. She also had 3 points charged against her license with the Jan. 9, 2010, sentence. The Crown Prosecution Service said Harriet Harman initially was charged with driving without “due care and attention” and using a handheld mobile telephone. The cell phone charge was dropped, which drew criticism from the road safety group Brake. She faced fines of over 5,000 pounds and nine points on her license for the South London crash.

Lower Chichester talks tough on texting

The blah blah blah over text messaging and driving gets pretty tiresome: How could any law possibly be enforced? What about my civil liberties? Yadda yadda. We’ve heard it all by now.

Meet a lawmaker in Pennsylvania who is mad as hell about texting and is not going to take it anymore.

The president of the township commission in Lower Chichester, Rocco Gaspari Jr., had this to say Monday after the body voted to ban text messaging for all drivers, effective immediately:

“Text messaging now supersedes drugs and alcohol for causing the most accidents in the United States. Something needs to be done and I won’t wait for someone in Harrisburg to get off their butt to tell everyone across the commonwealth that text messaging is dangerous. If anybody wants to debate this we can go out on the lawn, have a coffee or soda and have a discussion. Our police department will enforce this and if anybody doesn’t like it, don’t tell us that it can’t be enforced.”

Gaspari continued like so, according to the Delaware County Daily Times:

“Our job is to protect the health, safety and welfare of our residents. Nobody can tell us what we can and can’t do in our town. Nobody!”

Harrisburg, of course, not only wants to tell Gaspari’s Commission what to do, but also the mayor of Philadelphia. The legislature has threatened Mayor Mike Nutter and his city with millions in lost highway funding if it does not abandon its cell phone and driving law, adopted in late April.

Lower Chichester already regulates the use of handheld cell phones.

European cell phone, texting roundup

Europe’s bottom line: Most EU member nations have banned cell phone use while driving motor vehicles, although some countries provide exceptions for mobile phones with hands-free devices. When in Europe, assume cell phone use is prohibited for drivers.

Serbia: (Aug. 16, 2009) The Law on Safety in Traffic goes into effect Dec. 10, 2009. The Serbian ban on cell phone use while driving brings fines of €60. Punishments of up to €250 and some jail time (five to 10 days) may be imposed if an accident is in the equation, according to the web site Balkan Insight. As many as 20 percent of accidents in the country involve cell phone us, police say.

Text messaging road rage strikes

Like to text message while behind the wheel? Beware the wrath of vigilante justice.

A woman in North Providence, R.I., allegedly was texting away on her cell phone as she cut off another motorist.

Anthony Rapone, 60, allegedly forced her to stop in the middle of the road, threw her cell phone to the ground and punched the woman in the face. He then kicked the woman’s car repeatedly for good measure, police said.

Rapone said his father had been killed in a wreck caused by a driver who was driving and texting. He was charged with assault, vandalism and disorderly conduct, according to the Providence Journal.

Not all that surprisingly, some readers of the Journal’s web site said the lady had it coming:

“I think most of us wished he had stomped the phone to death and walked away.”

“Does this mean that the police did not file any charges against the woman who pulled out in front of someone while she was text messaging?”

“Good for him!!!! … I’m sure this particular girl won’t have a phone in her hand while driving anymore!!”

“This might be a tad over the line, but I’m willing to bet that you’ll see alot more of this.”

“Good for him!! … I commend him for taking the cell phone. I would have stomped on it. … She should also be charged.”

Cell phones are the new cigarettes, the saying goes. Here’s one way to clear the smoke … not that we approve, cough cough.

Distracted driving fines need punch

A swarm of newspaper editorials resulted from recent developments about distracted driving. Most of the editorials called for action at the state level to cut down on the use of text messaging devices and handheld cell phones.

The editorial board of the Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.) had something new to say, however. After making the usual points about the perils of distracted driving, the newspaper took aim at the puny fines most of these laws hand out:

“Silly, selfish behavior that puts people’s lives at risk should carry stinging penalties. … It’s time for a major crackdown on talkers and texters, and time for New Jersey to make cell-phone offenses really hurt. … These infractions should carry points, and those points should be non-negotiable. Drivers, when they appear in court, should not be allowed to plead to a lesser offense and fewer points. Repeat offenders should have their licenses suspended.

This is the only way to stop dangerous habits. And it’s the only way to break the addictive grip of technology so drivers can get both hands back on the wheel and their eyes on the road.”

The newspaper apparently didn’t get the word that California’s text messaging law went into effect eight months ago, but pointed to its fines as further evidence:

“California is mulling a law that would fine texters $20 the first time they are caught and $50 the next. Twenty bucks? That’s less than the cost of a fill-up.”

That’s a solid and seldom-heard take. States that feel their work is done in this area should examine just how much of a deterrent their cell phone and text messaging laws are for drivers who just can’t wait to communicate.

States yet to enact distracted driving laws should ensure that the sanctions have teeth — meaning fines that hurt and driver’s license points that register with insurance companies.

(Read the Star-Ledger editorial on distracted driving fines.)

DOT calls texting, cell phone summit

A national summit on the issue of drivers’ use of cell phones and text messaging devices has been set by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The gathering of senior transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives, members of Congress and academics who study distracted driving will be “in late September,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Tuesday.

“I’m against texting but I’m not going to pre-judge the summit,” LaHood later said in a Twitter entry.

The DOT will announce a series of actions to deal with the distracted driving crisis after the summit.

“The public is sick and tired of people being distracted and causing accidents,” LaHood said at a press conference announcing the federal summit. “We all know texting while driving is dangerous and we are going to do something about it so that responsible drivers don’t have to worry about it when they or a loved one get on the road.”

Update: View the agenda for the DOT summit on distracted driving.

The DOT move follows a month of revelations regarding text messaging and cell phone use by drivers. The New York Times detailed how the dangers of cell phone use were covered up earlier in the decade by federal researchers. Then, a Virginia Tech study reported that truckers who were text messaging were 23 times more likely to get into wrecks than those who were not.

A wave of newspaper editorials followed these reports, calling for state legislators to take action.

A group of Democratic senators have proposed a federal cutoff of highway funding for states that fail to address text messaging and driving within the next two years.

The federal government cannot outright ban texting while driving because highway issues are in the states’ jurisdiction.

“If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting, but unfortunately, laws aren’t always enough,” LaHood (pictured, above) said in a statement. “We’ve learned from past safety awareness campaigns that it takes a coordinated strategy combining education and enforcement to get results. That’s why this meeting with experienced officials, experts and law enforcement will be such a crucial first step in our efforts to put an end to distracted driving.”

Details of the still-in-development summit will be available on a DOT web page and on Twitter (http://twitter.com/distractdriving).