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D.C., New Jersey Join New York in Banning Cell Phones While Driving

June 28, 2004
Attention motor-mouths: effective July 1, you can be fined $100 or more for holding a cell phone while driving in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey. New York has had a similar law since 2001.

• Texting Behind The Wheel Like Driving Drunk Or High • California Motorists Cope With New Hands-Free Law • More Teens Using Cell Phones While Driving • Drivers Impaired Just by Listening to Cell Phone • Driving While Phoning Gums Up Traffic, Study Finds • Study: Drivers Using Cell Phones As Bad As Drunks • Survey: Outlaw Cell Phone Use While Driving • Cell Phone No. 1 Driver Distraction • More Drivers Talking While Driving • Listening, Talking, Driving Don't Mix • Poll Finds Motorists Irked At Other Drivers • Crash Risk Four Times Higher When Driver is On the Phone • Cell-Phoning Drivers Get Failing Grade from Johns Hopkins • Study: Eight Percent of Drivers Are On the Phone • Feds Say Hands-Free Cell Phone Ineffective • Hands-Free Phones Safer, Study Finds • Make a Call, Get a Ticket --- Cell Phone Hazards • Study Finds Little Short-Term Cell Phone Health Risk • Cell Phones Linked to Bee Decline • Mayo Clinic Finds Cell Phones Safe in Hospitals • Origin of California Cell Phone Fire Disputed • Cell Phone Ignites, California Man Severely Burned • Study: Cell Phone Users Have Lower Sperm Counts • Study: Drivers Using Cell Phones As Bad As Drunks • Doctors Warn Against Cell Phone Use In Storms • Cell Phones Cleared in Gas Fire • Sleep With Your Cell Phone? Don't Forget the Dog • Feds Warn of Cell Phone Battery Hazards • Risk of Cell Phone Explosions Growing • Cell Phone Catches Fire • Battery Recall • Traffic Tickets • Gasoline Fires • Radiation Fears --- • Consumer Complaints

The New Jersey fine can climb as high as $250 if there are aggravating circumstances, but Garden State police say they won't actually pull motorists over for driving and gabbing unless there's another infraction -- like expired plates or reckless driving.

New York and Washington, D.C., police can stop motorists simply for driving and chatting and D.C. police say they'll do so, at least for the first few weeks the new law's in effect.

Critics say the new laws won't have much effect.

The critics include the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the organization that represents state highway safety agencies. It is discouraging other states from passing hand- held cell phone legislation.

The association says hand-held cell phone bans send the wrong message to drivers -- giving them a false sense of safety by implying that it's safe to use hands-free cell phones while driving. The association says any distraction is a safety hazard.

Research conducted for AAA by the University of North Carolina last year indicated that reading and writing, eating, adjusting the radio, interacting with others in the car and grooming, as well as cell phone use, were major distractions.

Employing in-car video cameras to observe how drivers behave, the study concluded that all drivers in the study had been distracted to some degree, 90 percent by something outside the car and 100 percent by something inside the car.

"The AAA research reaffirms that cell phones are the distraction that drivers love to hate, but in fact they are just one of many that drivers encounter on a daily basis. Anything that takes a driver's attention away from the task at hand can be potentially fatal, said Kathryn Swanson, Chair of GHSA.

The Yankee Group, a Boston-based communications and networking research and consulting company, estimates that about 44 percent of all adult cell phone usage in 2003 was done in a vehicle.

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