Oologah board wants drivers to hang up

Publication:The Oklahoman; Date:Jan 11, 2003; Section:Oklahoma; Page Number:5

Cell phone restriction considered
Oologah board wants drivers to hang up
By The Associated Press

OOLOGAH — The motorcycle-riding mayor said he’d had enough of close calls with distracted drivers on cell phones. A trustee added her complaint about visitors thinking a downtown statue showed Will Rogers with a cell phone to his ear.

The other members of the Oologah Town Board echoed the frustrations. Now, they’re looking to do what the state has not: ban drivers from using handheld cell phones.

“They got hold of it and wouldn’t let go,” said Mayor Jerry Holland, whose complaints touched a nerve at Monday’s board meeting. “And they just about passed the ordinance while our attorney was in the other room.”

Oologah’s attorney was still looking Friday into whether the town of 840 on U.S. 169 can make cell phone use by drivers a moving traffic violation, Holland said.

Oklahoma has not followed the lead of New York state, which banned driver cell phone use in June 2001.

According to a poll conducted for The Oklahoman in 2001, 62 percent of those polled supported a state law to ban the use of cell phones while driving. However, 77 percent of those same respondents said they don’t pull over to use a cell phone, but rather continue to drive.

The mayor’s frustration has been growing since an accident two years ago in which his auto was rear-ended by a driver who was talking on a cell phone. He said he’s also experienced several near misses with cell-phone talking motorists while riding his motorcycle.

“When something gets under my craw it has to come out,” he said.

Still, he was surprised by the reaction of the other trustees when he voiced his complaints.

Trustee Jan Miller described her shock when a tourist asked why the downtown statue of Will Rogers portrays him with a cell phone. The cowboy humorist, who was born here, does strike somewhat of a cell phone pose with his hand to one side of his head under a tilted hat.

“Is that what Will Rogers said — ‘I never met a cell phone I didn’t like?’ ” she asked at the meeting.

The board plans to vote on the final ordinance Feb. 3.

Holland described the ban as a preventive measure.

If it passes, he said the town would post signs along U.S. 169 warning drivers they could be prosecuted for jabbering away while driving.

He said there would be exemptions in emergencies.

If it were up to Holland, though, such a ban wouldn’t stop at cars.

“My own personal feeling is I think they should ban cell phones in restaurants,” he said.