Last week, the Highland Park Police increased its signage and enforcement in the downtown business district to ensure drivers were not driving while holding their cell phones to their ears.
A year after the city instituted a law , Police Deputy Chief Dave Schwarz says the city is still seeking more compliance.
"It's very easy to just pick that phone up while you're driving," Schwarz told Patch. "We just urge people to please take that moment to pull into a parking lot or another safe location before you answer your phone."
In April, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called for a federal law to ban talking on a cell phone or texting while driving any type of vehicle on any road in the country, according to Reuters:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 3,000 fatal traffic accidents nationwide last year were the result of distracted driving. Using a cell phone while driving delays reaction time the same amount as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08, the legal limit, the highway agency said.
In Illinois, a law signed into effect by Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this month bans using a mobile device to take photos near an emergency scene, according to the Associated Press. He also signed a law that bans the use of handheld cell phones by commercial drivers and the use of cellphones by drivers in all roadwork zones. Both go into effect Jan. 1, according to AP.
Schwarz called the handheld cell phone ban in Highland Park a first step in combating distracted driving.
"The Transportation Saftey Administration came out and recommended a cell phone ban for the country," Schwarz said. "We might get more and more states that turn that way in the future."
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The general distracted driver statutes cover that situation, so why do we specifically need one to cover cell phones. What about truckers on CBs, what about police drivers on their radios when they are in the car alone. <y main point is here that we have a law, a number of them, that cover distracted driving, cell phone banning is just a knee jerk reaction to a populist view, so common in a country where EVERY person in some position of power is worried about their next election, their next campaign!
If you look at the studies, outside distractions are more dangerous than the ones inside the car.
We actually have distracted driving laws already. There's no reason to try and make a law for everything that distracts us. As I said before, there are many distractions outside the car, and many of them are more distracting than any inside the car. It's easy to go along with a fad and get mad at people. After all, you don't do THAT so let's get mad at them. But, there are usually plenty of things we do while driving that are dangerous. And I could say "I hope the police are liberal with their distracted driving tickets, and I hope the city's coffers are filled by the violators." Remember, that could be YOU.