Getting serious about cellphones

                 New Jersey's General Assembly last week voted overwhelmingly to increase the fines for motorists caught using their while driving.  The new law would raise the fine for a first offense from $100 to a minimum of $200 and a maximum of $400.  Second-time offenders would be docked between $400 and $600.  A third and subsequent violations would cost a driver between $600 and $800 and assign license points; a license suspension could also be imposed at a judge's discretion.
                You see, in New Jersey, lawmakers are really committed to addressing a serious highway menace that is both intuitive and borne out by research: Drivers who use cellphones for any purpose are distracted drivers, and distracted driving is a major hazard.  Yet, in the last fiscal year, more than 81,000 guilty pleas to cellphone use while driving were entered in the Garden State.  As one Assembly woman put it, the state needs to send an even louder message about changing driver habits that apparently die hard.
               Contrasted with New Jersey's law, which bans all hand-held electronic devices, Pennsylvania's no-texting-while-driveing prohibition looks rather feeble.  Not only is the fine for breaking the law just $50, but police say enforcing it can be next to impossible, since it's very difficult to distinguish between texting, which is unlawful, and dialing a phone number, which is OK.  For some reason unbeknownst to us, Pennsylvania lawmakers refused to recognize the weakness in the bill they passed.
               There remains hope, however, for a law that really means something.  House Bill 693 would prohibit the use of all hand-held wireless communication devices while driving, including cellphones.  There's companion bill in the Senate.  Unfortunately, the fine stipulated in both bills is just $50, though the House version would double fines in school zones.  Even then, the fines would be minimal.  As New Jersey has discovered, if fines are to serve as an effective deterrent, they have to have some bite.
              There's another bill in the House, HB 363, that would allow municipalities to enact their own cellphone bans.  This is not a good idea.  Imagine the confusion that would result having a patchwork of laws that begin and end at municipal borders.  No, the best way to ban cellphone use by drivers is to ban it statewide and put some sharp teeth in the fines.
              We agree with New Jersey lawmaker Annette Quijano, who said:  "Most people know (using a cellphone while driving) is wrong and have probably had a few scares themselves, but they continue to do it because they think they can get away with it."
              Pennsylvania needs a law where failing to get away with it carries a high price tag.