Malibu Surfside News
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• The Publisher’s Notebook
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Call Control and Malibu Drivers
I still recall some of the irate e-mails,
telephone calls and faxes I received when I would
“editorialize” about the need to curtail cell phone
use by drivers of moving vehicles. My favorite ones were from
the people who “reluctantly” agreed that, yes,
there might be other drivers who cannot juggle complex
communications with Pacific Coast Highway rush-hour traffic,
but they certainly weren’t among them. It’s
fascinating how people can rationalize that others might be in
need of monitoring, but they most certainly are not. These
I-can-drive-and-talk-at-the-same-time types would
“never” have been involved in the 1100 California
vehicle crashes directly blamed on hand-held cell phone use in
2007. Cell phone use may have played an indirect role in
thousands more. Those irate responses will essentially be moot
on July One when the first legislative attempt to regulate cell
phone use in moving vehicles takes effect. I say first because
I and many others in public policy, law enforcement and the
medical profession think that it does not go far enough. We
think that traffic safely remains compromised until all cell
phone use by drivers in transit is banned.
The new law requiring that all drivers over
18 use a “hands free” setup—either a wireless
unit or a hard-wired headset in one ear—is a step in the
right direction, as long as it leads to greater regulation. A
driver’s attention belongs on the road. Discussing
what’s for dinner, castigating a youngster for coming
home late, or pondering whether your cousin is having an
extra-marital affair are distracting topics when you’re
sitting on your living room sofa. Negotiating rush hour traffic
while discussing them is suicidal. National accident statistics
bear this out. Acknowledging how many years it took to get
people to make seat belt use an automatic response may not bode
well for cell phone regulation. Many people openly say they
will ignore the law. If citation for cell phone misuse becomes
as prevalent as cites for seat belt violations now are, their
attitude may change. The minimum base fine for a first offense
is $20, and subsequent offenses cost $50. If court costs or
other fees are added, the amount could double or triple.
Illegal calling could get costly.
Also taking effect on July One is the law
prohibiting drivers under 18 from using any type of cell phone
while driving. This is excellent. Young drivers need to
focus on the road, not be text-messaging their 100 B/GBFs.
But again, there is a strong likelihood that the law will
be ignored. The message that the teen risk of death-by-auto is
already so high, that anything that can make a dent in the
grisly data will help save lives, cannot be overstated. Still,
a study on a comparable ban on teen cell phone use in North
Carolina is disheartening. Young people ignored the ban on cell
phones, just as they ignored curbs on speeding, as well as
drinking and driving. Hopefully, California teen drivers will
paint a more positive picture. But that may not occur until the
same across-the-board prohibition on cell phone use applies to
all drivers of all ages. Until cell phone use at the wheel is
recognized for the risk that it is, Pacific Coast Highway
and all of the other roads in Malibu are more dangerous than
they have to be.
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