Baker eyes hand-held cell ban in cars
Gov. Charlie Baker, shifting gears, said he’s now backing a ban on using handheld cellphones while driving, and called on lawmakers to get a bill to his desk by summer.
The state Senate has already passed a bill that’d make Massachusetts a hands-free driving state by imposing $100 fines on those caught using a phone or other hand-held electronic devices behind the wheel, and up to $500 for repeat offenders.
Similar efforts died in the House in the past and have yet to emerge in the chamber this year. Every other state in New England has a similar ban, as well as New York, making Massachusetts a regional outlier.
“The technology has moved dramatically over the course of the past several years,” Baker said yesterday at a press conference, where he urged lawmakers to get him a bill by the end of the legislative session in July. “You don’t need a Bluetooth in your car anymore to drive on a hands-free basis and still be able to do some of the things that people need to do.
“We think it’s time for the commonwealth to move forward,” he said.
Baker’s position marks a shift from earlier in the year, when in February he sounded skeptical in a WGBH radio interview about not “making it possible for people to talk to other people when they’re driving.”
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo’s office did not address his personal stance on a hands-free bill yesterday, only saying that the Winthrop Democrat intends in the “near future” to speak with state Rep. William M. Straus, the House chairman of the Transportation Committee.
Nearly 400 people died on Bay State roadways last year, a 13 percent jump from the year before, the Herald has reported. The number of “distraction-affected” fatalities declined from 68 in 2015 to 45 last year, but officials said they believe that is “significantly” underreported, given the difficulty proving whether a driver was texting, glancing at a GPS or checking an app before a fatal crash.