Get ready to rumble: The state is talking about a cell phone ban for drivers.

January 14, 2008

State Journal Register

Our Opinion: Don’t rush into cell phone ban

Last week’s Statehouse meeting of a task force on distracted drivers didn’t involve a bill to outlaw the use of cell phones while driving, but it may have been the first step in that direction. Before the state gets too far down that path, it needs to consider what it would take to make any law on cell phones and driving practical and enforceable.

You’d have to lead an awfully sheltered life to believe that cell phone distraction is not a hazard these days. While most of us have not been in accidents caused by a driver’s talking, dialing or text messaging on a cell phone, one would be hard pressed to find a driver (or pedestrian) who hasn’t witnessed some act of phone-related driver irresponsibility.

In 2006, there were 6,326 motor vehicle crashes in Sangamon County, according to Illinois Department of Transportation figures. Of those, 26 were caused by cell phone use while driving, IDOT says. That’s a fairly slim percentage on which to base a ban, but it’s also a specific and easily identifiable cause of an accident every other week that shouldn’t be ignored.

Would an outright ban prevent some of those wrecks?

If we use seat belt compliance over the years as an example, it seems possible. When Illinois passed its first seat belt law in 1985, IDOT estimated seat belt use at 15 percent. Today, based on the department’s visual survey, more than 90 percent of Illinois drivers wear their seat belts. When failure to wear a seat belt became a primary offense in summer 2003 (meaning police could pull over and ticket motorists solely for not wearing seat belts), compliance was only 76 percent. The threat of being pulled over appears to have had some effect.

But seat belts and cell phones aren’t exactly comparable. It’s no trouble to buckle up, and it only makes you safer. Not talking while driving might mean you miss a business call, can’t tell your kids you’re on your way, can’t tell your date you’re running late. Will drivers adopt a cell phone law as they adopted the seat belt law?

Another big question is enforcement. Do Illinois police departments have the manpower to put on a full-court press to make a ban meaningful? If our observations are anywhere close to accurate, there are vastly more phone-using drivers on the road than police could hope to handle. There is the added problem of police officers themselves using cell phones on duty.

Perhaps the biggest question here involves the definition of distraction. Some states have banned hand-held phones but allow drivers to use hands-free phones. Chicago has such a law, and issued more than 13,000 tickets in 2006. But is the act of holding the phone what causes the distraction, or the act of being mentally involved in a conversation with someone outside your immediate surroundings? If safety is the goal, does merely banning hand-held phones accomplish it?

Illinois law currently allows municipalities to adopt their own cell phone policies, but a patchwork approach to this issue hardly seems in the best interest of Illinois road safety.

One thing the seat belt law taught us is that most drivers respect safety statistics. Show us good numbers, and we will respond accordingly. Seat belt campaigns over the years have taught us not only that can buckling up save us a ticket, but it can also prevent a minor accident from becoming a serious one. A similar two-pronged approach on cell phones could lead to adoption of rules that are respected by drivers and enforceable by police.