N.Y. to ban driving with handheld phone ...SF Perspective

An article published in the SF Chronicle gives their readers a California slant to the NY Cell Phone Ban.

"New York has beaten California to the punch, becoming the first state to bar the practice of gabbing away on handheld cell phones while driving a car.

The New York state Assembly passed a bill yesterday that would prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones but allow the use of headsets and other devices that would keep the driver's hands free.

A similar effort has been stalled in the California Assembly's transportation committee and will be reconsidered in January. The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman S. Joseph Simitian, is trying to drum up the support needed to get the bill to the Assembly floor.

"The action in New York can only help our chances here in California," said Simitian, D-Palo Alto. "I'm particularly encouraged that the bill was passed (in New York) with strong bipartisan support and with the support of a Republican governor. It's a safety measure, plain and simple."

New York Gov. George Pataki is expected to sign the bill later this week, according to a spokesman. The ban would begin Nov. 1, although drivers caught using handheld cell phones will be issued only warnings during the first month.

Violators will be able to have their tickets dismissed until the end of February if they present the court with a receipt showing they bought a hands- free cell phone system.

Opponents said the law would be unenforceable and there was no proven need for it.

Simitian's bill is similar to New York's in that it bars the use of handheld phones while driving. But the California bill would allow drivers three years to purchase headsets or upgrade their phones, and the penalties for infractions would not be as stiff.

In New York, first-time violators face a $100 fine. A second violation calls for a $200 fine, and every subsequent violation is subject to a $500 fine. Simitian's bill calls for a $20 fine for the first violation and $50 for subsequent violations.

Both proposals include exceptions for emergency 911 calls and do not include penalties for dialing while driving. Speaker phones and CB radios are permitted.

Similar bans have been proposed in 40 other states in the past 2 1/2 years, but New York's was the first to pass. Most wireless telephone companies have lobbied hard against the measures, arguing that telephones are just one of several distractions that cause accidents, and that education campaigns would be more effective than laws.

At least a dozen localities have established bans, starting in 1999 with Brooklyn, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. And at least 23 countries, including Great Britain, Italy, Israel and Japan, bar drivers from using handheld cell phones.

There are about 115 million cell phones in use in the United States and some 6 million in New York, according to industry figures.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest cell phone service provider and the only company to support the restrictions, said there are an estimated 12 million cell phone users in California, which leads the nation in population and the number of vehicles on the road.

A 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine said handheld phones posed about as much of a problem for drivers as drunken driving. The study found the chance of an accident was generally four times greater when using a handheld cell phone. But other studies have not substantiated such a dramatic link between cell phones and accidents.

Simitian's bill fell one vote short of the 10 votes needed to get out of the Assembly's transportation committee, a result he attributed to heavy lobbying by cell phone companies AT&T Wireless, Cingular and Sprint PCS.

Simitian said he found it ironic that the companies opposed the legislation even though their own safety brochures advise customers to use only hands-free devices when operating a motor vehicle.

Michael Bagley, head of public policy for Verizon, said the wireless company believes Simitian's proposed ban "doesn't take away a person's ability to use a cell phone in the car."

"If there is legislation, a bill like the Simitian bill is the way to go," Bagley said. "An individual is safer having their hands free and on the steering wheel while driving."

Critics have argued that the cell phone ban doesn't solve the problem of other driving hazards, including eating, putting on makeup, reading and using portable computers, but Simitian said the effort has to start somewhere."

"There are lots of distractions on the road today, but you fix the ones you can," Simitian said. "This is an easy fix that'll make folks safer on the streets."