Curbing cellphones
CELLPHONES PROVIDE people with an addictive freedom, to talk for business or pleasure, anywhere and any time, but a study released this week shows, finally, that they should not be used behind the wheel of a car. The Massachusetts Legislature needs to act quickly to prohibit the use of cellphones while driving.
Under present state law, motorists can use cellphones on the road so long as they keep one hand on the steering wheel and operate the vehicle safely. A study released this week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that this use is inherently unsafe.
The study was done in western Australia because US phone companies would not provide access to records so researchers could determine whether motorists hospitalized for accidents had used a cellphone at the time of the crash. In Perth, Australia, the researchers found that those who were using the phones were four times more likely to be involved in an accident than those who weren't.
This result confirms the conclusions of another, less comprehensive, survey and the intuitive feelings of many people. It is inherently distracting to talk on the phone while driving. The intensity of conversation drags the mind away from concentration on the road.
The Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation will need to take this study into account this fall when it considers three bill to regulate cellphone use.
One, introduced by state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, Democrat of Cambridge, would prohibit drivers under age 18 from using a cellphone behind the wheel. The Australian study, however, found that older drivers were just as liable to get involved in accidents as younger ones.
Another bill, proposed by Representative Paul C. Casey, a Winchester Democrat, would prohibit use of handheld phones behind the wheel but would allow the use of hands-free models, similar to laws in New York and New Jersey. The Perth study found that people using either type of phone were just as likely to have an accident. The act of conversation in and of itself is often enough to make motorists dangerously distracted.
The third bill, sponsored by Democratic Representative J. James Marzilli Jr. of Arlington, would prohibit all kinds of cellphone use, by all kinds of drivers, except in cases of emergency. This is a sweeping prohibition, one adopted by no other state. But it deserves support. Massachusetts, not known for placid driving conditions, requires tough driving rules, rigorously enforced by the police. It makes especially good sense in this state to keep the minds of motorists focused on the road and not on their phones.
