A trend I've noticed that more motorists are ignoring the ban on cellphone use while driving is confirmed by the Washington State Patrol.
Although prohibited in the state since July 1, the law is a secondary offense. That means police must stop the driver for another violation before writing the ticket for cellphone use.
It's important that cellphone laws be followed because distracted motorists make the roads more hazardous, especially for those of us riding bicycles. It has been proven that talking on a phone has the same effect on a motorist's brain as several glasses of wine.
Flouted
State Patrol Sgt. Freddy Williams told the Seattle Times that no other traffic law is flouted like this one:
“We see about one in three drivers talking on a cellphone. People seem to be ignoring the law.”
There was rarely a cellphone in sight when the law went into effect July 1. Now, I see many drivers on the phone.
In the law's first five months, through November, State Patrol issued 746 tickets for illegal cellphone use; Seattle police wrote about 250 tickets.
Men get the most tickets — 63%; drivers under 35 get the most tickets.
Advocates say Washington's law is the first step in a long process that they hope will eventually lead to an outright ban. For instance, it took 16 years from the seatbelt law to graduate from a secondary to a primary offense.
Sixteen years is too long to wait to make the roads safer.
Other states
California also banned talking on the cellphone while driving on July 1. It's a primary law, however, and so far 42,000 tickets have been issued.
Starting today, California also prohibits a motorist from using a wireless device “to write, send or read a text-based communication.”
Other states that ban talking or texting on a cellphone while driving are Connecticut, New Jersey and New York; they're all primary enforcement states. In addition, Alaska, Louisiana, Minnesota have laws that only ban texting while driving.
Cyclelicious writes about more laws that affect cyclists.
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