State ban needed
In response to what is viewed by many as an ever-growing menace – the use of handheld cell phones while driving – some municipalties are beginning enforcing a ban on such activity.
These municipalities have recognized a serious problem and are to be commended for doing something about it.
These bans have been made necessary because lawmakers in Harrisburg have failed to enact a statewide ban. That leaves Pennsylvania alone among states in this part of the country. New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Maryland and the District of Columbia all prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones, and in all those places except Maryland, doing so is a primary offense. (Police don’t need another reason to stop an offending driver.)
Why the folks in Harrisburg have been dragging their feet on this – when it’s empirically evident that drivers who are concentrating on talking, texting, e-mailing and Web surfing can’t be concentrating on their driving – doesn’t make much sense. The Legislature’s most recent effort to enact a ban last year died in the Senate.
Since municipal lawmakers obviously are thinking better than their state counterparts, what’s starting to take shape is a patchwork of laws that will only confuse drivers. For instance, how many drivers chatting their way along one street are going to know where one municipality ends and another begins?
Having a lot of local laws is inefficient and creates confusion, whereas a single statewide ban would be easy to understand and enforce.
Some municipalities list cell phone use as a secondary offense, meaning a driver cannot be stopped unless he or she is doing something else that’s prohibited, such as speeding. This weakens the ban considerably. Reckless behavior behind the wheel should be met with a serious law, i.e., one that specifies a primary offense.
That goes for the state, if and when it gets around to joining its neighbors in banning cell phones on the road. What we don’t need is another wishy-washy law.
The use of cell phones by drivers seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. This is clearly a statewide issue. Since roads don’t begin and end at municipal boundaries, it should not be left to local authorities to act.
Bucks County Courier Times