It’s time to pass cellphone law in Pennsylvania

There should be no disputing that distracted driving is dangerous. Yet Pennsylvania lawmakers have yet to rally around a law that would discourage it.

For years now legislators have been proposing a ban on handheld cellphone use while operating a vehicle. For years such proposals have gone nowhere, even as similar laws are adopted in other states.

Many of the states that don’t have a handheld cellphone ban at least ban cellphone use among novice drivers. Pennsylvania hasn’t even done that. What we do have is a ban on texting behind the wheel. That’s good, but not enough.

Once again we support Monroe County Republican Rep. Rosemary Brown in her efforts to finally address this danger once and for all. She is proposing a measure that would ban the use of handheld devices by drivers and make violations a primary offense — meaning police could make a traffic stop based on witnessing the violation. It would fine drivers $100 for holding a cellphone or similar device.

“The purpose of this legislation is not to penalize drivers,” Brown told the Allentown Morning Call “but to protect innocent drivers, similar to our driving under the influence laws.”

And drivers do need more protection. PennDOT reported 13,776 crashes linked to distracted driving in 2019, with 62 fatalities. Brown suspects there were far more such accidents than that.

Yes, we can take some heart in reports that traffic citations for distracted driving fell sharply in 2020, but not all that much. People were spending much less time in their cars last year due to the pandemic. This problem is not going away.

Making phone violations a primary offense is essential to having a law that truly acts as a deterrent to a dangerous practice, but a legitimate concern is being raised about giving police another pretext to pull over drivers of color. Lawmakers and law-enforcement officials will have to work to ensure that this measure is applied fairly and won’t make matters worse in this regard.

But the biggest issue that’s held back passage of the law is a sense among some lawmakers that it represents government overreach. They argue that it’s reasonable to assume that people can have a phone conversation and drive safely at the same time.

Of course people are capable of talking while they drive. But if they’re handling a phone while they’re doing it that’s a clear distraction from the road. And a stronger handheld cellphone ban would make it impossible for drivers to claim 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.

Brown’s proposal is no more an infringement on drivers’ rights than barring texting while operating a vehicle. People who routinely need to talk on the phone while driving should consider getting a vehicle that allows for hands-free calling. It’s a common feature in newer cars. For anyone else, it’s as simple as pulling off the road to tend to calls and messages.

Many people in our area have plenty of experience traveling to bordering states with laws barring handheld phone use while driving. They have found ways to manage it. We have no doubt people can do that on Pennsylvania roads as well.

The bill has broad support among organizations focused on traffic safety, and rightly so.

Distracted driving kills thousands of people each year on U.S. roads. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that sending or reading a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for 5 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.

In the meantime, motorists must commit themselves to safer driving practices regardless of what the law says, to protect themselves, their passengers and everyone else on the highway.