New York Ban on Texting While Driving Proposed
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Published: July 18, 2007
If u can rd ths whle u r drvng, u may be brking the law.
Or at least that is what one state senator in New York is proposing. This week, Sen. Carl Marcellino, a Republican from Syosset, announced a bill that would make it illegal to type, send or read text messages while behind the wheel. The ban would be an amendment to the current state law that prohibits talking on hand-held cell phones while driving, a practice that according to some studies can make a person four times more likely to be involved in a serious crash.
“Text messaging is the ultimate distraction because most of the time you’re using two thumbs, plus you’re looking at the screen,” Senator Marcellino said in an interview today. “And if you’re driving, that fraction of a second that you take your eye off the road — that second can be the difference between an accident or not.”
It is a practice that appears to have already proven deadly. In June, a group of five teenage girls were driving to a vacation home along a road in Canandaigua in upstate New York when their sport utility vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic and slammed head-on into a tractor trailer, killing all five of them.
The police later discovered from phone records that the driver, Bailey Goodman, 17, had been sending and receiving a succession of text messages on her phone in the immediate moments before she swerved out of her lane. Toxicology tests had already ruled out alcohol and drugs as contributing factors.
Chances are that if you haven’t sent a text message while driving, then you’ve been on the road with someone — particularly a teenager or young adult — who has. One recent study conducted by AAA found that more than a third of more than 1,000 teenagers surveyed admitted to texting behind the wheel. Another poll by Zogby found that 66 percent of people surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24 admitted to text messaging and driving.
“This is very, very widespread among teens and it’s growing,” said John Corlett, director of government affairs for AAA New York. “There’s not a lot of data on this, and we’re always a little hesitant to support traffic safety policy changes when data is absent, but in this case, clearly it’s more dangerous than using a handheld cell phone because both your eyes and your hands are off the wheel.
“We think this bill is a positive step,” he added.
The bill in New York follows on the heels of one that was passed in May in Washington, which was the first state to ban the practice of text messaging while driving. Similar bans are pending in New Jersey, California and Oregon. In New York, the bill was approved in the State Senate and is expected to be voted on in the State Assembly when it returns to session in January.
The bill would impose a $100 fine on anyone caught typing on a cell phone behind the wheel. Senator Marcellino has also introduced another bill — which was approved in the Senate and pending in the assembly — that would prohibit car manufacturers from installing television sets in dashboards (not including global positioning satellite screens).
“The issue is distracted driving,” Senator Marcellino said. “It’s very dangerous. Today your car is almost an extension of your home and office. We want people to remember that when you’re the driver, you’ve got to concentrate on the road.
“We understand these won’t be the easiest things to enforce,” he added, “but we also understand that just by virtue of knowing that something is against the law, most people will avoid doing it.”
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