Will drivers ignore new phone bans?

By Amy Roe

Talking on a cell phone while driving? Don't do it with a handheld device in California or Washington. Those states banned drivers from using handheld phones on July 1 -- joining Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and the District of Columbia.

In California, cops can pull over any driver caught holding up a phone, and issue a ticket that could total $100. In Washington, drivers must also be committing some other offense to get the $124 ticket.

Prior to July 1, cell phone companies sent text messages and car dealerships sent e-mails to remind customers of the pending bans (and to push sales of hands-free headsets).

But are drivers listening? With little enforcement of the bans in some states and no insurance penalties for many drivers, it's not clear whether the laws are much of a deterrent.

Staking out high school parking lots in North Carolina, for example, researchers found the number of teen drivers on cell phones was essentially unchanged after the state banned the practice, according to a study released this month by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Two months before the ban's December 2006 start, 11% of teen drivers were observed using cell phones as they left school in the afternoon. About five months after the ban went into effect, about 12% of teen drivers were spotted using phones.

• Talk back: Are cell phone yakkers a nuisance or a danger on the roads?

Girls were more likely than boys to use their cell phones while driving. SUV drivers were more likely than sedan drivers, and solo drivers were more likely than those with passengers, the study said.

Cell phone use remained steady -- about 13% -- at comparison sites in South Carolina, where teen use isn't restricted.

Enforcement varies

No state bans all types of cell phone use (handheld and hands-free) while driving, but 17 states and the District of Columbia do for novice drivers.

Only three states -- Washington, New Jersey and Minnesota -- ban text messaging for all drivers, but others are expected to follow. A 2008 survey by Nationwide insurance reported that 18% of motorists said they text-messaged while driving.

The level of enforcement varies. In some states (see "State cell phone driving laws," above right), drivers can be ticketed only if they've been stopped for another offense. In 2007, Connecticut State Police stopped more than 7,000 motorists for violating the state's cell phone ban but didn't necessarily give the $100 ticket.

New York has issued 1.3 million tickets for the offense since its law went into effect in 2001.

In North Carolina, where cell phone use is banned only for school bus drivers and motorists under 18, the state Highway Patrol wrote 35 tickets for the infraction in 2007. The tickets are $25 each and delay by six months a teen driver's progression through the state's graduated license program. As of recently, the agency had issued 20 such tickets this year.

The Public Policy Institute of California concluded in May that low penalties -- the state's base fine will be $20 -- likely wouldn't deter drivers even if the law is strictly enforced. (Court assessments and fees can bring the amount closer to $100 in some jurisdictions. A first offense in Los Angeles County, for example, will run about $93.)

No hit to insurance

The insurance industry has not taken a position on the bans, said Carolyn Gorman, the vice president of Insurance Information Institute, an industry-funded trade association.

Of the states banning handheld cell phone use among all adult drivers, only Utah assesses points against a license. A driver who accumulates a certain number of points may have to take driving lessons, pay fines or surrender his or her license.

"It would be zero points on their license," said Shane Robinson, a southeast regional spokesman for insurance company Allstate, of most drivers caught chatting. "From that standpoint, it wouldn't affect our rates."

That doesn't mean there wouldn't be any consequences.

"Obviously, if you're doing this and getting into accidents, it's going to affect your premiums," said Bob Passmore of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, an industry trade group.

Like driving drunk?

Why are the bans increasingly popular?

A growing body of research links drivers' cell phone use to car accidents. Nearly 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event, according to a 2006 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Cell phone use and drowsiness were the primary causes of driver inattention.

A 2006 study by University of Utah psychologist David Strayer said drivers talking on cell phones -- including those using hands-free devices -- are as prone to accidents as those who drive drunk. It's the conversation, Strayer reported, not the device, that distracts drivers.

Teen drivers targeted

Teenagers are involved in three times more fatal crashes than other drivers, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and cell phone use is highest among young drivers: 8% of drivers age 16 to 24, compared with 4% of drivers 25 to 69.

But a ban on cell phones is hard to enforce when it applies only to some drivers, because it's hard to guess a person's age, said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Also part of the problem in North Carolina, he said, is that the ban is little known, particularly among parents.

"We know with other traffic-safety laws, visible enforcement makes a difference," Rader said. "Under the cell phone ban, if people don't think they're likely to be stopped, they're not likely to hang up and drive."

*Under secondary laws, an officer must have some other reason to stop a vehicle before citing a driver for using a cell phone. Laws without this restriction are called primary.

California and Utah have unusual provisions. In California, an officer will be able to stop any driver of any age holding a cell phone and talking on it, but officers won't be able to use checkpoints to enforce the ban for under-18 drivers. In Utah, a moving violation other than speeding caused by use of a handheld cell phone is considered careless driving.