Driving and Cell phone Usage - by Sujey, Maricella, and Viri

SB128 ("Wireless telephone use restriction for minors in vehicles") is being sponsored by Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, who said he began working on S.B128 "after listening to young drivers express concern with the driving habits of other people their age. These teenagers said they had witnessed many of their friends drive while using cell phones, and expressed a desire for legislation to help eliminate this problem."

As teenagers who have to deal with this daily, we know such legislation is necessary.

This bill targets drivers under 18 who, if seen texting or making a call while driving, could get pulled over and face a fine of $50.00, but would not get docked points on their drivers license.

The only exceptions to this law would be talking on the phone to report a hazard, reporting to parents, or during a medical emergency. Enactment of this bill will cost the Courts $4,000 from the General Fund beginning in 2013, but would also generate $5,200 in ongoing revenue to the General Fund beginning in 2013.

So far the bill has moved pretty quickly, having already passed the senate and gone through its first reading in the house.

We had a few questions for Senator Romero which were answered by his intern Nicholas Dunn. Nicholas mentioned that Sen. Romero, "felt that removing additional dangerous distractions for drivers who already must take great care to refine their driving ability just made sense."

When asked why the bill only applies to drivers under 18 and younger, he said “the bill only targets drivers under 18 because drivers of that age are less experienced and still developing their driving skills.”

We also asked how it will be enforced and how could the police officers prove that the kids were calling their parents or calling about an emergency. He said; “The bill would simply be enforced by police officers on the roads. Further details of this answer would be better answered by law enforcement personnel, but essentially they could decide whether to pull over a driver if the driver appeared under 18 and was talking on a cell phone. If a teen driver is cited for talking on a cell phone when they were simply talking with a parent the parent can come into the authorities and confirm that the driver was speaking with the parent. If a teen driver was calling for an emergency, the circumstances of the emergency would likely be clear.”

The last question was one of our main concerns, since it seems impossible to know how they would be able to prove whether minors were telling the truth about reporting with a parent or not.

We believe a law such as this should not only be enforced to 18 years and younger, but for all ages. Teenagers are not the only ones who text and call while driving. For example, there have been times where we've yelled at our parents for doing it, especially when the weather is bad, yet they still do it. Also, another flaw with this bill is that whether the teenager is talking with a parent or not, they should not be allowed to make a call because that even one call can cause an accident. We believe that if we want to report a hazard or report with a parent we should pull over somewhere in order to talk.

In our U.S Government class we were able to discuss this bill and, after an intense debate among the students, 85% of the class agreed that the bill should be applied to all ages and there should be no exceptions on any cell phone usage while driving.