It will still be OK to sip a latte, eat a donut, read the paper
or curl your eyelashes behind the wheel, but talking while driving
may soon be illegal in Santa Clara County.
Gilroy – It will still be OK to sip a latte, eat a donut, read the paper or curl your eyelashes behind the wheel, but talking while driving may soon be illegal in Santa Clara County.
Tuesday, county supervisors will consider an ordinance that would ban cell phone use except in an emergency, unless a driver is using a hands-free device.
Supervisor Don Gage, though, said Thursday that he’ll vote against the ordinance because it will be impossible to enforce. The law would apply only to county land. Gilroy drivers could use their phones on Monterey Highway south of Masten Avenue, but north of Masten the same conversations would be illegal.
“The enforcement there is a nightmare,” Gage said. “It won’t count in the city, but it will count in the county. It will be a big mess so I’m not going to support it.”
Gage was joined in his opinion by Supervisor Pete McHugh, who called the ordinance “a grand gesture,” but something that should be handled at the state level, where similar measures are being debated.
As described in the ordinance that was recommended by supervisors Liz Kniss and Jim Beall, the law will be enforced only when drivers are pulled over for other infractions.
A first offense carries a $20 fine. A second offense will cost $50. If cell phone chatter causes an accident, the fine will be $100.
The vote may be deadlocked Tuesday because Supervisor Blanca Alvarado will not attend the meeting.
The county sheriff’s department will be responsible for enforcing the law in unincorporated areas and the California High Patrol would enforce it on county expressways.
A deputy sheriff declined to comment on the proposed law.
Captain Otto Knorr of the California Highway Patrol Hollister-Gilroy office said that he personally would support anything that causes drivers to focus more on the road ahead of them while driving.
He declined to comment on the enforcement of the law because he did not have enough information about the ordinance, but he said any vehicle violation can be difficult to enforce in some circumstances.
“Driving is a divided attention skill,” Capt. Knorr said. “So that means when you drive along and observe an obstacle, talking on a cell phone diverts your divided attention.”
Hands-free devices are better than somebody holding the phone, Knorr said, though he added that talking alone still distracts drivers from the task at hand.
“People need to pay attention while they are driving,” he said.
Two active bills in the California Legislature would limit cell phone use while driving. Both bills have been submitted to the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
They will be heard during the next Senate session, which starts in January 2006. If passed, the bills will take effect Jan. 1, 2007. The county ordinance would not take effect until 2008 and would be superceded by any state legislation.
Like the county ordinance, Senate Bill 681 would require drivers to use a “hands-free” cell phone device while driving. State senator Joseph Simitian (D-Palo Alto) wrote the bill that would fine drivers $20 for their first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense. Simitian has authored two previous versions of his bill. The first bill failed to pass the Assembly transportation committee and the second bill passed in the Assembly, but was not heard by the Senate.
A bill authored by Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) would restrict the use of cell phones for drivers with a provisional drivers permit, but would allow the continued used by all other drivers.
The bill failed once in the Transportation committee, but has been accepted for reconsideration in the next session.
“It’s really just designed to affect those people just learning to drive,” said Dillon Gibbons, legislative director for Garcia.
California state law currently prohibits the use of cell phones by school bus drivers, as do several other states.
New York passed a state-wide law restricting cell phone use to “hands-free” devices in 2001, and was the first state to implement it. Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey have also enacted legislation similar to that proposed by Santa Clara County.
By Melissa Flores and Matt King
