Should Cell Phones be Banned on the Road?

A national safety board is recommending a ban on drivers using cell phones, but area police chiefs are divided on whether the idea would make the roads any safer.

Officers in Wisconsin can pull over drivers for texting, but not for talking on a cell phone unless driving becomes "inattentive," meaning the driver has violated a traffic law. 

Port Washington Police Chief Richard Thomas said he supports the idea of a ban because it would allow officers to stop distracted drivers before their driving becomes erratic, when it could be too late to prevent an accident.

"Anything a driver is doing that is distracting should be prohibited," Thomas said. "I support the ban 100 percent."

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended the national ban on drivers using cell phones and hands-free devices last week, after completing an investigation into a highway crash on Aug. 5, 2010 in Missouri when a texting driver caused a chain-reaction collision that killed two people.

It wasn't an anomaly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated there were 3,092 fatalities due to distraction-affected crashes in 2010.

Maj. Sandra Huxtable of the Wisconsin State Patrol, said Wisconsin drivers have been diverting their attention from the road more often with distractions like cell phones.

Between January and mid-December this year, the state patrol cited four drivers for inattentive driving in Milwaukee County, and nine in Ozaukee County, according to numbers provided by Huxtable. In the same time, 21 were warned for inattentive driving in Milwaukee County, and 18 in Ozaukee County.

"When you get an operating license that is a privilege and drivers should drive with safety in mind," Huxtable said.

There are some gray areas

But Bayside Police Lieutenant Tom Hankel said he thinks some drivers can use phones responsibly, and police should focus on pulling over erratic drivers.

"It is a problem, but should they be banned? I don’t think so," Hankel said. "I think we should enforce the laws we have, which is inattentive driving."

However, Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski said the roads would be safer if drivers were deterred from talking on their phones while driving, as they are now with texting.

"Have we written a lot of tickets for texting while driving?" Banaszynski said. "Maybe we haven’t, but have we deterred some of that behavior to keep the streets safer? Probably.

"When driving started, there were no cell phones. As technology progresses, the law has to keep up with the times as much you getting a new cell phone."

Banaszynski said drivers should be able to use hands-free devices, though.

"When you put your hand up to your ear, and you’re dialing the phone, you’re more distracted," he said. "If you can push your ear once and say 'call home,' you’re not looking down and distracted as much."