Some lawmakers want car cell-phone ban
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OLYMPIA - You've seen them: motorists yakking on their cell phones, their minds a million miles away.
Some state lawmakers want to make the distraction an infraction - or even ban Driving While Phoning.
Critics, though, wonder what might be next: a ban on fiddling with the car radio, disciplining the kids in the back seat or putting on makeup while barreling down the road?
Cell-phone use has ballooned in the past few years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that more than 80 million wireless phones were in use last year, many of them in cars, trucks and vans.
Some studies, including one published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1997, see a link between cell-phone use and traffic accidents.
State Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, sponsor of a crackdown proposal, says he can't prove a direct link but has plenty of anecdotal evidence of a big problem out there.
He's a case in point, he sheepishly admits. He told a House Judiciary Committee hearing Friday that he eats "morning and night," drinks and spills beverages, fools with the car radio and intervenes when the kids squabble.
"But the most dangerous thing I have ever done is use the cell phone," Miloscia said.
He says he's decided not to use a hand-held car phone anymore and wonders whether other motorists might need a little nudge to change.
His plan, House Bill 1334, would impose a $35 fine for anyone whose car-phone use directly contributes to a crash.
Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, proposed going further. Her substitute bill would ban use of hand-held cell phones by a driver. She would make an exception for motorists who want to report drunken drivers or summon emergency or medical help.
Her bill doesn't spell out a penalty, and it would be enforced only when a driver was pulled over for another infraction, such as speeding. That's the way the state enforces its seat-belt law.
Lawmakers on the panel were skeptical, saying the bill unfairly singles out one of many distractions drivers must deal with.
"I saw one man with a cup of coffee in one hand, shaving himself with an electric razor in the other hand and turning the corner with his car," said Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle. "Amazing."
"Cell phones are not the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 contributing factor to accidents," said Rep. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, Pierce County, committee co-chairman.
Two law-enforcement officers on the committee, state Trooper John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, and police Detective Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, said the legislation would open the door to criminalizing all sorts of distractions.
The law already requires drivers to use "due care" and makes it a crime to drive negligently, Hurst said, and police have broad discretion to cite motorists.
Representatives for the wireless-telephone industry said their companies take the problem seriously and are trying to educate the public about "hands-free" headsets, auto-calling of preset numbers and other safe ways of using car phones.
If the weather or traffic is bad, drivers can let a passenger handle the call or let the incoming call go into voice mail, said Dan Youmans, a lobbyist for AT&T Wireless.
"The police already can cite you for driving in an unsafe manner, regardless of the distraction," he said.
Capt. Eric Robertson, spokesman for the State Patrol, said law-enforcement agencies don't keep records of cell-phone usage as a factor in highway accidents.
"There are so many things that are potentially distracting to a driver," Robertson said. "Are we going to say you can't change a CD?"
John Moffat, director of the state Traffic Safety Commission, said the jury is still out on how big a problem cell phones are on the highway.
"Our assessment is that it is probably not a big problem," he said. "In the past 10 years, we have gone from almost no car phones to heavy use, and our fatality rate seems to be going down every year in spite of that."