At least one study compared the danger posed by driving while talking on a cellphone to driving drunk.
Editorial Comment: Give me a friggin break.
bobp
Monday September 25 1:56 PM ET
Chicago Weighs Cellphone Driving Ban
By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Verizon, the largest U.S. cellular telephone provider, said it broke with the industry on Monday and agreed to support laws that would ban handheld cellphone use while driving, a practice blamed for deadly accidents.
New York-based Verizon Communications' apparent change of heart came as a committee of Chicago aldermen quickly postponed a vote on a proposal to make the city the biggest U.S. municipality yet to make it illegal to talk on a cellphone while driving.
``This is a rather subtle issue we're dealing with here and we want to get it right,'' Alderman Burton Natarus said as he called off testimony on his proposal in front of the City Council's Traffic and Safety Committee.
The small town of Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, was the first American municipality to make it a traffic violation to drive with a cellphone glued to one's year -- except in emergencies. About five other small municipalities have passed similar bans, though a few ordinances were later struck down by the courts.
The industry has been largely opposed to bans on cellphone use while driving, although have promoted safety campaigns.
The Chicago ordinance would set $25 fines for a first offense and up to $100 if use of a cellphone was found to contribute to an accident.
The proposal would allow drivers to use ``hands-free'' cellular devices, but Verizon representatives said that could contradict an Illinois law that bans the wearing of any type of earphones while driving.
Increasingly popular and relatively economical $15 to $20 earplug attachments for cellular phones could not be worn under that state law, Verizon spokeswoman Annette Jacobs said. A speaker/microphone system for a vehicle can cost $200 to $300. Jacobs said the company was hoping to avoid a confusing ''patchwork'' of municipal ordinances governing the issue.
She said Verizon, which has more than 25 million wireless customers, would support repeal of the Illinois law governing earphones and then lobby for passage of a state-wide ban on anything but 'hands-free' cellular use by drivers. The company suggested phasing in the law over three years to allow the market to modernize and make hands-free devices even cheaper.
In his proposal, alderman Natarus noted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) found that cellular telephone use by drivers contributed to 57 fatal crashes in 1997, the latest data available. At least one study compared the danger posed by driving while talking on a cellphone to driving drunk. |
