More on cell phones

By REBECCA LERNER STAFF WRITERrlerner@thnt.com
State lawmakers are considering a new law to crack down on motorists who drive while talking on hand-held phones, but statistics backing the measure are murky.

The state Department of Transportation, the State Police and the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety told the Home News Tribune they don't have any data linking cell-phone use to traffic accidents.

"Everybody's clamoring to ban cell phones, but we do need to make sure that the data correlates with what everybody's saying out there," said Pam Fisher, director of the division of Highway Traffic Safety. "It's a problem . . . And in this business, we need to make sure we're truly looking at the science behind this."

The bill would make it a primary offense to talk on a hand-held phone while driving, allowing police to pull over offending motorists for an infraction and write a $250 ticket, or $100 for text messaging. Using a hands-free device, however, would be legal.

By comparison, the current fine for reckless driving, a more severe form of careless driving, starts at $50 and caps out at $200 for a first offense.

Under the existing 2004 cell-phone ban, talking on the phone is a secondary offense, so police can't stop a driver without a more serious infraction.

In Edison, where police have been keeping track of cell-phone use as a cause of crashes for four years, authorities haven't found a significant correlation between cell-phone use and collisions, said police Lt. Joseph Shannon.

South Brunswick, too, has kept records and hasn't found a direct correlation, said police Detective Jim Ryan.

That could have something to do with the method of data collection, police said: Motorists aren't always honest with investigating officers, especially when they don't want to admit fault after a collision.

Yet larger studies also offer contradictory conclusions.

A study published in July 2005 in the British Medical Journal found that drivers who use mobile phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash that requires hospital care. And the study, conducted in Australia, found that using hands-free devices didn't change the risk of crash.

A California study found cell phones were cited in 11 percent of distraction-related crashes, more than any other factor.

But an analysis of data from 16 states by the nonpartisan National Conference on State Legislatures found that cell-phone use correlated with less than 1 percent of car accidents, and a May 2001 study by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center put cell phones eighth among distractions that cause crashes.

"It should give pause to those who want to craft just very narrowly focused bills," said Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a Washington, D.C.,-based advocacy organization for wireless telecommunications companies. "Driver distraction is a broad and varied issue. What about the folks who are caring for a child or pet? What about the folks who are reaching for a CD, combing their hair or putting on their makeup?"

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, said he has "serious reservations" about the bill and would rather support an all-encompassing driver-distraction measure that "would free up the Legislature from having to routinely create new legislation to address the distraction du jour."

"I have a concern about legislation that targets cell phones or Blackberry texting. They are distractions, no doubt, but they are two of many distractions that confront drivers in their cars," Wisniewski said. "Why should the act of talking on a cell phone be subject to a much more serious penalty than reckless driving?"

A 2006 study published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute estimated that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involve some form of driver inattention.

Similarly, a January 2007 survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 31 percent of respondents admitted they daydream while driving; 19 percent said they fixed their hair, text or instant message; 14 percent comfort or discipline children; and 8 percent drive with a pet in their lap. Some surveyed also confessed to reading books, watching movies, putting in contact lenses and even shaving while driving.

"We had an incident where a woman was eating a bagel (while driving), then she choked on the bagel and died," Ryan said. "Phone use, the radio station, text messaging, kids in the car — all are potentially distracting."

Advocates for the cell-phone bill, supported by state Senate President Richard Codey, said they stand behind it.

"Oftentimes, common sense is a good guide for legislation," said Assemblyman Bill Baroni, R-Mercer. "We want to do everything we can to make driving more safe. If we can encourage people to use hands-free devices, that's a smart thing for the state."

Both Baroni and Wisniewski spoke to the Home News Tribune while driving, using hands-free devices.

The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the Assembly later this month. If passed, it would then head over to the state Senate, which approved a slightly different version in February 2006, and finally to Gov. Jon S. Corzine.