Cell Phone Legislation in Today's News

Council Poised To Overturn Cell Phone Veto
Legislation banning students from carrying cell phones to school in NYC likely to be overturned (The New York Sun): The bill's sponsor, Council Member Lewis Fidler of Brooklyn, said the bill strengthens the position of opponents to the cell phone ban. It states that "no person shall interfere" with the right of a student to use a cell phone "en route to and from school."

Laws target teen drivers' cell phone use
While Calif. already has impending legislation banning cell phone use while driving, some law markers want to take another step (San Francisco, AP): The legislation, introduced by California Sen. Joe Simitian, would take effect next July. It would ban 16- and 17-year-olds from using any electronic device while driving — cell phones, text messaging devices, laptop computers, pagers, walkie-talkies and handheld computers, even those with "hands-free" features. (Last year, Schwarzenegger signed a bill that prohibits all drivers from holding a cell phone while driving. The measure, which takes effect in July 2008, allows hands-free devices.)
... According to a 2001 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 16-year-old drivers have a crash rate three times higher than that of 17-year-olds, five times greater than 18-year-olds and almost 10 times greater than drivers ages 30-59.

CTIA

CTIA's (The Wireless Association) Joseph Farren, who is the spokesman for this issue and he basically said they don't support legislation the restrict cell phone usage partially or fully, but they don't oppose wireless hands-free headset usage.

There are two PSA's on their site and some policy content under advocacy and policy

CTIA website

AAA and Consumer's Union

I contacted Bob Williams at Consumer's Union and he told me Consumer's Union did not do studies on such subjects as what I was asking about. He did tell me the stand they have on driving with cell phones, which was don't use them while driving. I also have several sites with studies done. I don't know if anyone has already looked at these and is writing about them. They are:

www.ctia.org
www.aaafoundation.org/pdf/distaction.pdf
www.iihs.org/sr/pdfs/sr4006.pdf
http://www.aaafoundation.org/e-news/issue5/cellphone.cfm
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/PDF/nrd-13/BentsF_doc.pdf

Dawniel's Niece

After my interview with Dawniel Stewart, I located court records on the man that hit and killed her niece. The man's name is Justin Lowell Piersall.
His court records are here.
He has recently been charged with Negligent Homicide (Involuntary Manslaughter) in the death of Jessalynn Renee Sanders, Dawniel's niece.
This could be something we can follow while writing the story and see how the case turns out.

Cell phone ban information

Okay, here's all the cell phone ban information I collected and put into one place.

1. While drivers continue to drive and chat on the home front, cell phone usage while driving has become a national law issue.
   
2. Some form of cell phone ban exists in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Oklahoma is not included.
   
3. Statewide bans have been enacted in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington D.C. Fourteen states allow local government to ban cell phone usage in city jurisdictions.
   So, what about Oklahoma?
   
   1. A bill to enact a statewide ban of cell phones in automobiles failed in May 1999.
   2. Legislation was passed that year prohibiting local authorities from enacting their own bans. Oklahoma is one of nine states forbidding local bans, including Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, ***NEW JERSEY?? (says so on some sites but not others)*** Nevada, Oregon and Utah.
      
   3. While Oklahoma does not ban cell phone usage in automobiles, state police are required by law to include information about cell phone in accident reports.
      Cell phone bans are not only enacted in the United States. They have become more common worldwide.
   
   
4. As of May, 2007, 47 countries have completely banned cell phone usage while driving.
   
   1. In India and, in some incidents, Bahrain, cell phone usage in an automobile is a criminal offense and can be punished by imprisonment. In Poland, fines can be as high as $1000.
      
   2. Partial bans exist in Canada, Mexico and Pakistan, and legislation is being debated in Botswana—the attorney general is drafting legislation—and New Zealand.

Technorati Roundup

My searches have not yielded any blogs that focus primarily on our topic. My most effective search terms were "Cell phone" AND "driving ban."

The quotations marks as well as the AND were essential to filer out tons of unrelevant results.

Technorati did find individual positings on the topic. Most posts referred to newspapers articles and I have included the links below.

Two articles (1, 2) detail California's cell-phone driving ban that targets teenagers only. The articles mention 15 other states and the District of Columbia already have similiar bans.

Article on how Chicago police are not really enforcing a cell-phone driving ban. (The tickets are only $50 anyway.) The linked story also refers to an independent study that says the NYC ban only changed behavior for a few months.

Pennsylvania legislator seeks to ban texting when driving.

5 teens died in a car wreck when the car's driver crashed into a truck while text messaging someone.

contact info for national sources

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 1-888-327-4236
National Transportation Safety Board: (202) 314-6000
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: 1-800-832-5660

Wesselhoft

Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Moore, plans to introduce legislature that would discourage cell phone use while driving.Wesselhoft said the number of accidents caused by inattentive drivers chatting on cell phones has skyrocketed, citing numbers reported by the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.

The Oklahoma Highway Safety Office listed an increase in cell phone-related vehicular accidents from 98 in 1998 to 802 in 2006, Wesselhoft said.
Wesselhoft's bill would call for a mandatory 20-day jail sentence and $1,000 in fines when an automobile accident contributed to cell phone use has causes bodily harm to the victim, Wesselhoft said.

When questioned about the severity of the bill, Wesselhoft said, "No, I do not think it's too harsh. We have to think about the victims out there. They're getting killed."

Two other provisions in the bill include a prohibition against school drivers using cell phones while transporting children, unless it's a verifiable emergency, and a prohibition against teenagers with a learning permit using cell phones while driving.

"They're just learning to drive a car," Wesselhoft said. "They don't need to be texting."Wesselhoft said although Oklahoma law forbids distractive driving, it is not enforced.

Wesselhoft said he hopes his bill will bring this issue to the forefront, but his track record has not been so forthcoming.

In 2005, Wesselhoft filed a bill that would have made "hands-free" cell phones in vehicles a requirement; however, the measure didn't make it out of committee hearings, Wesselhoft said.

Wesselhoft said that Oklahoma legislature tends to be reactive rather than proactive.

"Unfortunately, my colleagues react to tragedy," Wesselhoft said. "I'd rather be in the prevention side."