More Cell Phone Limits In Car Debated By N.C. House

Related: More Texting Bans, More Collision Claims?

Chief bill sponsor Rep. Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, who sponsored the texting ban bill in 2009, said the extra limitations are worth protecting the public on the roads. Eight states and the District of Columbia already ban the use of hand-held phones while driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"We've got to send a message ourselves we're willing to (choose) convenience over highway safety," Pierce told the committee. "It's about highway safety — your family, my family — getting home safe at night."

Studies show distracted driving contributes to automobile accidents, said Tom Crosby, a spokesman for the AAA Carolinas motor club, which backs the limit to hands-only calling.

A 2008 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved a form of driver inattention seconds before the accident. Cell phones are a primary cause of inattention, the study said.

But some lawmakers questioned how the law could be enforced or whether cell phones are the greatest distraction.

The bill could be "another reach by the government to tell us what we can or can't do," said Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union. "To me holding a hot cup of coffee is a whole lot more distracting because if that thing spills, we're all going to be hurting."

Coffee is very different than a phone that you hold to your head, countered Rep. Bill Brawley, R-Mecklenburg.

"When you're going into traffic, you don't have to pick the cup of coffee up," he said, and "the cup of coffee doesn't talk to you, so it's easy to ignore."

Similar broad bans have failed to get traction in the Legislature in recent years, but House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said he's interested in finding ways to reduce the number of accidents caused by inattention. He visited the state Highway Patrol's training track last month with Pierce to drive golf carts while talking on a cell phone.

"There's a compelling amount of statistical data that says distracted driving is causing accidents in this state," Tillis said this week. "It's increasing insurance rates and it's having other negative outcomes."

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said he's been opposed to cell phone restrictions but expects the fate of a bill like Pierce's would be considered by the entire chamber and not just him.

The committee heard from a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was struck in September by a car driven by a fellow student who was on the phone, according to Joe Capowski, who witnessed the accident from the deck of his home.

"Since then, my life has been totally disrupted," said the student, Krista Slough of Charlotte, who was hospitalized for five days with a cerebral hemorrhage. Today she still deals with severe headaches and fatigue. "By the grace of God I'm still alive."

Capowski, a former UNC-Chapel Hill professor, said studies show drivers using hands-free phones aren't any safer than drivers with hand-held phones and a motorist who is considered legally drunk. He urged the Legislature to ban cell phone use completely while driving.

"Tell me about one phone call that is so important that it justifies endangering other people on the roads to the same extent as a drunk driver does," he told lawmakers.