Denogean: Cell phone industry using tobacco tactics?
by Anne T. Denogean on Sep. 25, 2007, under Edge, LocalDoes it really take a genius to figure out that eating a bagel or smoking a cigarette while driving is far less dangerous than engaging in an activity that takes your mind, eyes and hands away from the task?
I’m speaking of the 21st century phenomenon of text messaging and doing so while on the road.
Last week, when the Phoenix City Council passed an ordinance banning texting while driving, the Arizona cell phone industry promptly countered by announcing its intent to write a proposed state law that would ban all activities that could be considered “distracted driving.”
That could be eating, fiddling with the radio or yelling at the kids in the back seat.
Rep. Steve Farley, a Tucson Democrat and the state’s leading proponent for the regulation of cell phone use while driving, immediately called out the proposal from the Arizona Competitive Telecommunications Coalition as a sham.
“It’s an absolute smoke screen,” he said. “It’s clear they are just trying to say, ‘Don’t single us out. All these other things cause distractions, too. We’re not that bad after all.’ ”
Farley believes the coalition wants to torpedo his efforts to pass a state ban on texting while driving by putting out a measure so broad that Arizonans would never support it.
“There’s a huge difference between talking to your passenger and texting – reading and writing on this little device that takes all your attention away from the road,” he said.
He’s right. The effort by the coalition reminds me a little of the tobacco industry’s attempt to confuse the public last year by putting its own toothless ban on public smoking on the ballot to counter the real public smoking ban sponsored by the American Lung Association.
RJ Reynolds spent millions in Arizona during the election season, but the public saw through the charade.
Susan Bitter Smith, chairwoman of the coalition representing Arizona wireless companies, said the issue should be driving safely, not one of particular behavior. Six states have adopted distracted driving laws, she said. But would the coalition support a law with a specific list of distracting activities, to included cell phone use and texting? I asked Bitter Smith.
“I don’t know that there would be a list. What law enforcement is telling us is that they need to be able to observe people who are not paying attention to the wheel, not paying attention to what they are doing,” she said.
Giving police the ability to “make the call in the field” is more useful to them, she said.
Somehow, I don’t see Arizonans supporting a law that would give law enforcement officers carte blanche to stop them on the road for any activity the officers perceive to be distracting to the driver.
From across the nation in recent years, we’ve heard tragic stories about deaths caused by a driver engaged in texting.
In July, a 17-year-old New York girl ran her sport utility vehicle head-on into a tractor-trailer, killing herself and the four friends with her. It’s believed that she was texting a friend at the time.
But it was a texting-while-driving accident in our state that prompted Phoenix to act. In August, a young Glendale woman who was texting ran her car into a truck driven by a Chino Valley mother. Both were killed.
During the last legislative session, Farley introduced a bill to ban texting while driving. It didn’t even get a hearing. He plans to reintroduce it next year, with a bill to ban all but the use of hands-free communication devices while driving.
While the coalition’s proposal is overly broad, I think Farley doesn’t go far enough. What the evidence really supports is a complete ban on the use of all wireless communication devices while driving.
There isn’t a huge body of research on text-messaging dangers while at the wheel. But there’s lots on cell phones, which can be extrapolated to texting. A 2005 study conducted in Australia – not in the U.S. because American cell phone carriers refused to participate – found that your risk of having a crash is 400 times higher when you’re on a cell phone, hands-free or otherwise.
In 2001, researchers at the University of Utah found that cell phone users, whether on hands-free or hand-held devices, miss more traffic signals and react to signals more slowly than other motorists.
In 2003, they followed up with a study that showed it wasn’t just a matter of being distracted by dialing the phone and holding it. Using a cell phone while driving causes “inattention blindness.” In other words, a driver may look at objects on the road but not “see” them because attention is directed elsewhere.
In 2006, the Utah researchers summarized their studies by saying that motorists talking on cell phones are as impaired as drunken drivers.
Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.
