Tuesday, March 02, 1999
Car phones' role in wrecks queried
ODOT could track accident reports
BY PAUL SOUHRADA
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Some state lawmakers want to know whether the increasing use of cellular telephones is leading to more auto accidents.
Rep. Jeanine Perry, D-Toledo, persuaded fellow members of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee to add language authorizing the study to the $5.2 billion transportation budget the full House was scheduled to vote on Wednesday.
Ms. Perry's amendment requires the Ohio Department of Public Safety to track the number of accidents in which cell phone use was a primary or contributing cause.
Too many drivers lose track of what they're doing when they're talking on the telephone, she said.
No state bans use of the phones by drivers. Some have laws requiring drivers to give their “full time and attention” to operating the vehicle, though, and people have been charged following accidents that happened while they were on the phone.
Several states — including New York, Texas, Maryland and Georgia — are considering legislation restricting cell phone use by drivers.
The idea has gotten better reception overseas.
The Australian state of Victoria banned use of cellular phones while driving in 1988. Since then similar bans have been imposed in Spain, Israel, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and Chile. Driver use of hand-held phones is banned in Switzerland and Britain.
A spokesman for the cellular industry said it's unfair to pin all the blame on telephone use.
Tim Ayers, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, noted that many states — including Ohio — already list “driver inattention” on crash reports used by law enforcement agencies. That category includes not only cell phone use, but eating, applying makeup, reading, playing with the radio and anything else that takes a driver's attention off the road.
“We favor a broad brush,” Mr. Ayers said.
The Ohio Highway Patrol sides with the industry in this debate.
“Statistically speaking, it's a relatively small, small, highway safety problem,” said Lt. John Born, patrol spokesman.
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