Good luck enforcing this one. How do you distinguish a 17-year-old from a 19-year-old while they're driving?
Guv signs law banning minors from using cell phones while drivingTom Chorneau,Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, September 14, 2007
Allan Quach says he talks on his cell phone while driving, but tries to chat only with parents or friends who urgently need to talk to him. But minors like him won't be able to do that much longer, at least not legally.
Come July 1, thousands of 16- and 17-year-olds in California will be prohibited from using cell phones, PDAs, laptops and pagers while driving, under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"It's going to make it harder to pick somebody up or take important phone calls - like an interview (for a job) or if something happened in your family," Quach, a student at Galileo High, said Thursday on his cell phone as he drove his car. Quach, 17, will turn 18 days before the law kicks in, so the restriction won't apply to him.
But Schwarzenegger and other backers of the law say there is increasing evidence that cell phones and other "mobile service devices" are a major source of distraction among all drivers, but especially teens, who are also the motorists most likely to have accidents.
Teens cited under SB33, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, face a fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 each time after that. Officials said traffic officers will not be allowed to pull drivers over simply because of a cell phone infraction, and violations will not count as part of the traffic safety point system. Emergency calls will be exempt.
Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia have similar restrictions on teenage drivers.
Bay Area teenagers interviewed Thursday said they aren't sure the new regulations are fair.
"That's insane - it's madness," said Cameron Young of San Francisco, who, at 13, has a few years before he can get his license. "No technology? I'm speechless. Not cool, not cool at all."
Berkeley High School senior Will Kruse, who will turn 18 before the law kicks in, hadn't heard of the measure until Thursday and wasn't happy about it.
"Cell phones are such a big part of our society now," he said, although he acknowledged that he's seen some of his peers doing "crazy stuff" while driving.
"I know a lot of my friends text message when they drive," he said. "You have to look down a lot while you're driving to do that."
Schwarzenegger, whose eldest daughter turned 16 last year and began driving, said teens need special protection.
"The simple fact is that teenage drivers are more easily distracted," he said Thursday at a bill-signing ceremony at Sequoia High School in Redwood City. "They are young, inexperienced and have a slower reaction time."
In a recent survey by AAA and Seventeen magazine, about a third of the teenagers polled admitted to being distracted when driving while either sending text messages or talking on cell phones. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study found that 8 percent of drivers ages 16 to 24 used a handheld phone during daylight hours in 2004, compared with 5 percent in 2002 and 3 percent in 2000.
The governor's office reported that highway crashes are the leading cause of death among 16- to 20-year-olds, while highway accidents are the cause of 44 percent of teen deaths in the United States each year.
Simitian, who wrote a law passed last year that requires the use of hands-free devices for drivers of all ages beginning July 1, said he believes that cell phones pose the greatest risk to drivers - especially teens. Under the law signed Thursday, teenage drivers will not be able to use even hands-free devices while driving.
"I understand that access to a set of car keys and a cell phone are a rite of passage for teenagers, but the combination can prove deadly," he said. "The message we need to be sending now is that the two don't mix."
But some transportation experts said there's still no strong data linking cell phones with crashes.
Matt Sundeen, transportation analyst with the National Council of State Legislatures, said crash sites usually include physical evidence of a cause such as drunken drinking or speeding. He said accidents involving cell phone use are usually self-reported by the victim or by witnesses and thus might not be accurate or complete.
While many teenagers oppose the new law, a group of eighth-graders in Granite Bay (Placer County) actively supported it.
Students in Craig Cook's history class analyzed Simitian's bill this year and argued over its merits. They overwhelmingly supported the bill and submitted their arguments to the Legislature during hearings in May.
"It surprised me," said Cook. "I try as a teacher not to assume too much, and you'd expect most of the kids would think of this as a horrible intrusion in their lives. But by a 2-to-1 vote, they supported the bill."
The law
Beginning July 1, anyone under age 18 will be prohibited from using a cell phone, laptop, PDA, pager or two-way messaging device while driving in California. Traffic officers, however, will not be allowed to pull over drivers simply because of a cell phone infraction.
Penalties
The fine for the first offense will be $20, and each additional violation will cost $50.
Elsewhere
Similar laws are in effect in 15 other states (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia), as well as Washington, D.C.
By the numbers
61%
Number of teens who admit to risky driving habits
46%
Share of the risky drivers who say they text message when driving
51%
Share of the risky drivers who say they talk on cell phones while driving
40%
Number of teens who exceed the speed limit by 10 mph or more while driving
Source: AAA / Seventeen magazine survey conducted in April of more than 1,000 16- and 17-year-old drivers.
Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker contributed to this report. Online resources - the text of SB33: links.sfgate.com/ZUE. E-mail the writers at tchorneau@sfchronicle.com and mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/14/MNR0S5MGK.DTL
