State needs stronger laws on cellphone use

For years Pennsylvania has lagged behind neighboring states in enacting a ban on hand-held cellphone use by motorists.

New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia all have such laws in place, and treat hand-held cellphone use as a primary offense. That means a police officer who spots someone holding a phone behind the wheel can stop the motorist without identifying any other offense.

Right now 20 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories ban drivers from using handheld phones. Even more ban younger drivers from using cellphones behind the wheel at all, even if they have a hands-free device.

Yet for some reason Pennsylvania lawmakers have been reluctant to tackle this issue. The best they’ve been able to do is ban texting while driving and enhance penalties for motorists whose texting causes accidents resulting in serious bodily injury or death.

Another attempt at a handheld cellphone ban is working its way through the Legislature. A bill passed this month by the House would ban the use of handheld phones for all drivers to make calls. At first glance it looks like a sign of progress, but there’s a catch. The measure would not allow to stop motorists for that reason alone. It would have to be paired with another violation, such as speeding.

Representatives voted 12074 to expand the current law, which bans any texting and prohibits the use of handheld devices to make phone calls for commercial drivers.

There would be exceptions so drivers can use handheld phones to call 911. The bill also would require driver’s education training for teens on the handheld device driving prohibition.

The initial proposal by Rep. Rosemary Brown, a Monroe County Republican, called for making hand-held phone use by motorists a primary offense. But the measure was amended to make it a secondary offense.

Yes, it’s good that the bill increases the fine for texting from $50 to $150, but not making texting or handheld calls a primary offense takes away from the measure’s power as a deterrent.

We understand that police have a hard time spotting people using their cellphones behind the wheel. But there’s considerable power behind warning motorists that making hand-held calls is against the law. It is a serious deterrent to an unsafe practice.

Furthermore, a stronger handheld cellphone ban would make it impossible for drivers to get out of tickets by arguing that they were engaged in a permitted phone use such as navigation or dialing a phone number. Even scrolling through social media is allowed under current law.

Many Pennsylvanians are accustomed to driving in other states and dealing with these laws. They can deal with it here. More and more cars are equipped with technology to make phone conversations possible without picking up the handset. Motorists who must rely on hand-held phones should either let a passenger do the talking or delay their conversation until they’ve parked. If they use a phone for navigation, it should be in a docking station.

It’s a serious matter. Distracted driving kills thousands of people each year on U.S. roads. The National Highway Transportation Safety Board says that sending or reading a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for five seconds.

At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. Yet at any given moment, about 660,000 American drivers are using or manipulating electronic devices while driving, the NHTSA reports.

We need a stronger law in Pennsylvania to discourage this practice. We urge lawmakers to rework the legislation and bring it closer to Brown’s original vision

In the meantime, motorists must commit themselves to keeping both eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel, for the sake of their own safety, that of their passengers and everyone else out on the highway.

Distracted driving kills thousands of people each year on U.S. roads.