Posted on: Wednesday, April 21, 2004

EDITORIAL
Dialing and driving a recipe for disaster

The verdict is in. Most people polled in a University of Hawai'i survey believe using a cellular phone while driving should be banned. And at least 20 percent of them admit they use a cellular phone while driving. Go figure.

Clearly, motorists are aware of the risks of talking in the fast lane. But there's no incentive to stop. And that's why we need a ban on handheld cell phones while driving.

Maybe the threat of fines will get folks to turn off the phones, just as they do in movie houses, theaters, classrooms and other venues where cellular phones are a nuisance.

It appears Americans are as dependent on the cellular phones as they are on their cars. At least 45 countries around the world have banned cell phones when driving, including Japan, Israel, Ireland, England, India, France, Italy, Kenya, Philippines, Turkey and Russia.

In the United States, however, only New York has banned it outright, while Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have partial bans. More than a dozen states, including Hawai'i, are considering a ban.

There are some big bonuses. For example, New York police last year reported amassing more than $3 million in fines for using a handheld cellular phone while driving since the law was passed in November 2001. Penalties are $100 per ticket.

That said, compliance of the New York law has dipped by about half since its law was passed, according to a study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

Apparently, as publicity about the law waned, motorists went back to their old cell phone ways. It's like a seatbelt law: It takes a sustained and highly visible law enforcement effort over years to get people to change their driving habits.

Talking in the fast lane — unless it's an absolute emergency— is one habit we need to break.