From Albany: Safer Roads Proposed

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said he would like to close a loophole that allows the use of handheld cellphones by drivers when vehicles are stationary but on the roadway. This is a terrific idea.

Horror stories abound about the dangers of motorists distracted by their phones. Numerous studies have definitively connected cellphone use to increased numbers of accidents. In as many as one in five car crashes in the United States, a driver was talking on a cellphone at the time of impact. Federal statistics show that drivers were distracted, often by the phone, in about 10 percent of fatal accidents involving teenagers. A 20-year-old Amagansett driver who recently admitted he had been texting when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the woods was indeed lucky that he wasn’t hurt.

Credit is due The Albany Times Union for noticing the proposal in Mr. Cuomo’s State of the State report this month. In it, the governor would prohibit any use of cellphones by drivers under 18, although hands-free use by adults would still be permitted, as would calls and other functions when a vehicle is stopped on the side of the road. The idea that motorists at traffic lights always stop texting or looking at email messages until they have started moving again is wishful thinking. 

Banning the use of phones in vehicles that are on the roads but not moving would make law enforcement more effective, as officers could more easily spot offenders. One can imagine how many tickets might be issued if a spotter was stationed at the intersection of Main Street and Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village, for example. In fact, someone could look out from The Star’s front office windows and tally up any number of violations any day of the week.

One study, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that drivers who flout cellphone bans tend to engage in other risky behavior, such as speeding, unsafe lane changes, tailgating, and sudden stops. Giving police an additional way to impress on them the importance of following the rules, in the form of a ticket and points on a driver’s license, before they cause a serious accident could help increase road safety for all of us. This is similar to the tough rules on drunken driving, which have been cited in helping to reduce fatalities.

A pending bill that could get at Mr. Cuomo’s goal of safer roads has come from State Senator Carl Marcellino of Oyster Bay. The proposal would redefine the existing cellphone law’s meaning of “in motion” to include vehicles stopped in heavy highway congestion. (We have all been behind someone on the Long Island Expressway who did not notice that traffic was moving again as he or she played Candy Crush or texted mom.) Mr. Marcellino’s bill would also prohibit the use of cellphones when a vehicle was stopped at a traffic signal, railway crossing, stop sign, or any other traffic control device.

The drivers of commercial vehicles are already subject to similar restrictions. It makes sense to extend them to the rest of New York State’s motorists.