New effort to outlaw text messaging while driving

Photo by Elizabeth Shell
Cronkite News Service
Vinnie Sorce’s fiancee, Stacey Stubbs (shown in the picture with Becca Sorce, their daughter), was killed in a 2007 accident caused by a young woman police determined was text messaging behind the wheel. Sorce, shown at his Chino Valley home, said he’d like Arizona to add a law against using cell phones behind the wheel. With national momentum building, two state lawmakers plan to introduce a bill in the 2010 session that would ban text messaging while driving. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Elizabeth Shell)

Arizona could follow lead of 19
states that already ban practice

A Cronkite News Service Special Report

By ELIZABETH SHELL
Cronkite News Service

CHINO VALLEY -- Vinnie Sorce knew something was wrong when he saw a police officer pull into the driveway. He immediately sent his three children, two boys from a previous marriage and a little girl with his fiancee, to their rooms so he could talk to the officer outside.

“Time just froze,” he said.

Sorce’s fiancee, Stacey Stubbs, had headed to Phoenix for a doctor’s appointment.
She never made it.

A Ford pickup truck hit Stubbs’ rented PT Cruiser head-on on an isolated stretch of road near Lake Pleasant, killing her instantly. The other driver, Ashley Miller, 19, was thrown from the truck and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Sorce later went to the hospital to identify Stubbs’ body.

“You could see her nose was broken, and her fingers were all crushed, like she had gripped the wheel,” Sorce said.

A familiar pain flooded back. Sorce had lost his first wife, Lisa, to cancer eight years before.

“The hardest thing I thought I’d ever have to do was tell the boys their mom had died,” he said. “All of a sudden I had to do it again.”

A few days later he was enraged to hear that Miller had been text messaging on her cell phone. Based on a message Miller sent a minute before the 911 call reporting the accident, police surmised that she became distracted and crossed the center line.

Crashes blamed on cell phone use and text messaging as well as recent studies outlining the dangers of the practice have helped build interest around the country in restrictions.

As of late 2009, six states -- California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington -- and Washington, D.C., required drivers to use a hands-free device, and 19 states and Washington, D.C., prohibited text messaging behind the wheel, according to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association.
Arizona has no law against talking on cell phones or text messaging while driving, and bills to ban one or the other have foundered in previous legislative sessions. But supporters of restrictions say the national momentum will change that in 2010.

“Anyone who follows the news knows people die as a result of texting while driving,” said Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson. “My motivation is to save lives. I’m confident the voters want it.”

Melvin is teaming with Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, to sponsor a bill against text messaging while driving. Like Melvin, Farley has introduced bills to restrict drivers’ cell phone use in previous sessions.

“This is an issue of safety on our roadways,” Farley said. “It’s not a partisan issue.”

Research and Trends
Recent studies show drivers are much more likely to cause crashes when they’re chatting and especially when they’re tapping away on their phones.

A July 2009 Virginia Tech study found text-messaging drivers were 23 times more likely to cause crashes than if they weren’t distracted. A 2003 University of Utah report suggested distracted drivers are more impaired than drunk drivers.

The Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimated cell phone use attributed to crashes costs the U.S. $43 billion a year and causes about 2,600 deaths annually.

Rumblings of change at the national level could trickle down to Arizona, supporters say. In October, for example, President Barack Obama issued an executive order prohibiting federal employees from sending text messages while driving for their jobs.

A fall 2009 summit dedicated to distracted driving ended with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declaring distracted driving a “dangerous practice” and a “deadly epidemic.”

In October, a national Rasmussen poll found 91 percent of adults thought text messaging while driving should be made illegal. Fifty-nine percent thought that ban should include any cell phone use.

In 2007, a statewide Cronkite/Eight Poll found that 87 percent of voters favored a ban on text messaging while driving.

Arizona has one statewide restriction on cell phone use while driving: School bus drivers aren’t allowed any cell phone use on the job. Sixteen other states and the District of Columbia have the same ban.
Motivated by the statistics and the crash that killed Sorce’s fiance, the Phoenix City Council in 2007 passed an ordinance against text messaging while driving.

It bans sending or receiving any written communication via a cell phone, meaning both text messages and e-mails are covered. If caught, drivers can be fined $100 and up to $250 if the messaging causes a crash.
While opponents called the ban an intrusion and unenforceable, Greg Stanton, a deputy attorney general who as a city councilman pushed for Phoenix’s ban, said it was important to make a statement.

“If it’s truly a safety issue, it’s appropriate for the government to get involved when an activity puts other people in danger,” he said.

Past Attempts
The closest Arizona has come to a law was the 2009 legislative session, when Melvin’s bill against text messaging while driving made it out of committee but failed in a Senate floor vote. Farley has introduced bills seeking to ban text messaging while driving and to require drivers using cell phones to use hands-free devices, but those went nowhere.

With research indicating that text messaging increases a driver’s risk of crashing by 2300 percent, Farley said that puts it in a league of its own.

“We can’t legislate against all stupidity, but we can legislate against costly and dangerous stupidity,” he said. “The reason we have laws is because not everyone is going to follow their common sense.”

Melvin and Farley said they will have to overcome a strong libertarian mindset among state leaders and the public.

“I’m not fond of people who are texting while driving, but that’s your prerogative to do,” said Sen. Manuel V. “Manny” Alvarez, D-Elfrida, who voted against Melvin’s bill. “Us as a state shouldn’t tell you how to live your life.”

“Texting and driving is a horrendous practice,” said Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. “But let’s not become a nanny state where everything has to be legislated and mandated. We have a lot of other issues that are more important.”

Gutier, Alvarez and others said a ban would be prohibitively difficult to enforce.

“How are police going to prove it was texting versus dialing?” said Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, who voted against Melvin’s bill.

Partisan politics also may have contributed to the bills’ demise. For Farley, a Democrat can have a hard time getting legislation through a Republican-controlled Legislature. When Melvin’s bill came up in the Senate, several Democrats, feeling in part they should support their House colleague, voted against it, according to Alvarez, Aboud and Sen. Jorge Garcia, D-Tucson.

“For me, the issue was that this had been raised previously by a Democrat and we were thwarted from advancing the issue,” Garcia said. “I was going to do everything I could to keep a Republican from advancing it. It’s mean-spirited here. Whenever I can return the favor, I will.”

Difficulty in Enforcement
While supporters of restrictions point to the Phoenix ban on text messaging while driving, opponents point to statistics showing that very few citations have been issued.

According to Phoenix Police Department records, 39 drivers had been cited as of Nov. 15, an average of 1.5 tickets per month, even though a recent national AAA poll found about 20 percent of drivers admitted to text messaging or reading and sending e-mail behind the wheel.

Officials have repeatedly pointed to the difficulty of proving a driver is text messaging as the main reason there have been so few citations.

“I’ll support anything that saves lives, but it’s almost impossible to enforce and even less easy to prove,” Gutier said.

Linda Gorman, public affairs director for AAA Arizona, said one way to solve that problem is requiring drivers to use hands-free devices when talking on cell phones. California has done that since mid-2008.

“That way, it tackles both issues: texting while driving and how to enforce it.”
It’s difficult to determine how many Arizonans have been involved in crashes caused by cell phone-wielding drivers. The record-keeping system police officers use isn’t set up to note whether or not the driver was distracted and what distraction caused the crash.

And it’s tricky to establish whether or not cell phone use might have led to the crash in the first place. The only way to do so is if police obtain cell phone records or they have a reason to go through the driver’s cell phone and find that a text or e-mail sent at the time of the crash.

Military Bases

Photo by Elizabeth Shell
Cronkite News Service
A sign warns drivers that cell phone use is prohibited at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. While lawmakers, other public officials and interest groups debate whether to ban cell phone use or text messaging while driving, military bases in the state already have such bans, following a directive from the Pentagon. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Elizabeth Shell)

While lawmakers, other public officials and interest groups consider whether Arizona should bar drivers from text messaging or require hands-free devices, military bases around the state already do both, following a 2005 Department of Defense directive. And military officials say their streets are safer because of it.

“We know it’s working because we see people pulled over to the side of the road,” said Tanja Linton, spokeswoman for Fort Huachuca, an Army base in Sierra Vista.

Concerned about drivers being distracted in school zones and around the many pedestrians on base, Fort Huachuca began more aggressive enforcement of the military’s ban in early 2009, Linton said. That includes citations with the possibility of a $50 fine and a court appearance not only for military personnel but contractors and visitors as well.

“When you start hitting people in the wallet they start paying attention,” she said.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson followed suit soon after, and the impact is easy to see, officials there said.

“Vehicle accidents have gone down,” said Senior Master Sgt. Todd Fuller, security forces manager at the air base. “Safety was the No. 1 factor behind this.”

What’s Next?
Greg Stanton, the former Phoenix city councilman, said he expects the federal government to force states to ban text messaging while driving by making that a requirement to receive highway funding.

“It’s similar to how drunken driving laws and safety belt laws were enacted in Arizona,” he said. “The federal government says, ‘I will revoke this federal transportation money you get to build roadways unless you pass a law banning this activity.’”

If Arizona were to pass legislation banning text messaging or requiring a hands-free unit for drivers who use cell phones, Verizon would support the concept, according to Michael Bagley, executive director of public policy for the cell phone company.

“We have an education policy where we encourage no texting while driving and the value of using hands-free devices,” he added. “We make those devices available to customers, but they have to make their own decisions.”

Gutier, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety director, said momentum across the U.S. may have an effect in Arizona even if a law doesn’t come from it.

“Text messaging is something I think this country is taking seriously,” he said. “People do dumb things while driving. A national, local and state media campaign on the dangers of texting or using the phone is as important as a law on the books.”

Farley and Melvin said they plan to push their bill after the firestorm of balancing the state budget has passed.

“I’m a conservative Reagan Republican, but I don’t want someone swerving into me,” Melvin said. “You can see the concern in parents’ eyes. This is the right thing to do.”

With proponents pushing laws, public-awareness campaigns, education and citizen involvement to combat distracted driving involving cell phones, Vinnie Sorce said he’d like to see “all of the above” happen.

“I feel like as one person there’s just nothing I can do. I can write as many letters to the editor as I want, I can be on TV, I can work with Steve Farley and people are just going to be what they want to be,” Sorce said. “It’s hard to enforce. But I think the biggest thing is just being preventative.”

Farley, like Melvin, is confident that 2010 be the year Arizona adds a law restricting cell phone use behind the wheel. To him, it’s a matter of life and death.

“If we don’t make it illegal, people will think its OK. And if people think it OK, we’re going to lose people’s lives on the road,” Farley said. “Part of my job as a legislator is to protect people’s lives.”
State laws against cell phone use while driving

States that restrict cell phone use while driving

By Cronkite News Service

Here are states with laws restricting cell phone use while driving:

o Require hands-free devices while using cell phones: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington plus the District of Columbia.

o Prohibit bus drivers from using cell phones: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia plus the District of Columbia.

o Ban text messaging behind the wheel: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Conneticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington plus the District of Columbia.