Politics

NY Disconnects Car Cell Phones

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 22, 2001 / 11:25 AM EDT / CBS

New York is set to become the first state to ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones.

For some 6 million cell phone users in the Empire State, the new law would create a need to get equipment for their phones so they can keep their hands on the wheel while driving.

The New York State Assembly voted 125-19 after 2 1/2 hours of debate to bar the use of hand-held cell phones by drivers except in emergencies. Advocates of the measure called phoning while driving a potential cause of traffic accidents, although there is only anecdotal evidence for their position.

The state Senate adopted the measure last week. Gov. George Pataki, a Republican in his second term, has said he supports it for safety reasons and will sign the bill soon.

Driving While Dialing

The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has put together the following safety tips to follow while driving and using a wireless phone.

The New York proposal would take effect Nov. 1, but violators would get only a verbal warning for a month. Those caught after Dec. 1 would be ticketed, but that could be dismissed through February if a receipt for a hands-free system was presented.

Violators of the New York law could be fined up to $100 beginning in December. The legislation does not address the issue of dialing while driving.

New York's legislation won't be the last at the state level. Thirty-nine other states are considering similar laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Several counties across the state have already enacted such bans.

Twenty-three countries already have some sort of hand held ban, including Britain, Israel and Japan.

The measure's sponsor, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, began his campaign for the ban in 1996 amid his colleagues' snickers. "People were making a lot of fun of me, but it eventually became not only an issue at the state level, but on the national level."

Ortiz told CBSNews.com that he began his crusade after witnessing a small crash. The woman driving in front of him was weaving from side to side, and eventually collided into a pole.

"I thought she was drunk, but it happened that she was not drunk, it was because of the cell phone. If this happened on a minor scale, can you imagine what would happen on a major highway?" he said.

Lawmakers embraced th notion after independent polls showed New Yorkers favoring the ban by a wide margin. A March poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that 87 percent of New York voters supported a ban.

A 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine said the hand-held phones posed about as much of a problem for drivers as drunken driving. The study found the chance of an accident was four times greater when using a hand-held cell phone.

"The benefit is quite large in the number of deaths that we will avoid," said Assemblyman Steve Levy.

A Run On Equipment

Jeffrey Eder of Buffalo is among the masses now in the market for a hands-free device so that he can keep using his phone for business and personal use.

"I think it's a good idea. I actually considered doing it before," said Eder, who works in veterinary services. "Having a headset is more like talking to another person in the car rather than doing two things at once."

One industry worker said his company's hands-free devices range in price from $14.99 at the low end to about $200 for kits that include a phone cradle for the dashboard.

Opponents said the law would be unenforceable and there was no proven need for it.

"We're putting the cart before horse,'' argued Assemblyman Thomas Kirwan, who complained the measure called for studying accidents involving cell phones after making their hand-held use illegal.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) says the ban lacks teeth, since drivers would still be able to talk using hands-free head sets and would still be able to dial.

"Banning a hand-held device will not do much for safety," said AAA spokesman Mantill Williams. "The hands-free feature is not a safety device, it's merely a convenience device. And if you talk on the phone with a hands-free device you still are engaging in a dangerous activity.