NEW YORK-Legislation to require hands-free cellular telephone use while driving is scheduled for a hearing in the California Senate Transportation Committee April 15. In Illinois, a similar bill was scheduled as early as April 10 for a third reading and final up-or-down vote by the full General Assembly.
The California bill, introduced by Sen. John Burton of San Francisco, would amend the state’s Vehicle Code to make it a crime for a person to hold a cellular or other portable phone while driving on state highways. The bill would allow cellular phone users to manually dial out, hang up or turn off the handset.
If the bill clears the Senate Transportation Committee, it then must be considered and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee before the full Senate votes on it, said Jonas Austin, an aide to Sen. Burton. If the full Senate approves the legislation, it will undergo a similar process in the State Assembly.
The Illinois legislation, virtually identical to that under consideration in California, cleared the General Assembly’s Executive Committee last month. State Representative Robert Bugielski of Chicago is the lead sponsor of the legislation. If the Illinois General Assembly passes the bill, it then will undergo consideration by the state Senate.
In California and Illinois, legislators are working against an April 25 deadline for consideration of bills in the current session.
In New York, where no similar deadline exists, slower action is anticipated. Companion bills, which would ban most kinds of cellular phone use, are under consideration by the Transportation Committees of both the state Assembly and Senate. They were introduced early last month.
State Senator Leonard P. Stavisky of the New York City borough of Queens, lead sponsor in that house, has since modified his original bill to make its restrictions less strenuous. The changes, also incorporated into the companion bill that the state Assembly Transportation Committee is reviewing, would do the following, Sen. Stavisky said: Language has been included to exempt 911 calls from the driving and dialing ban. The grace period allowed to answer a call while driving has been extended to two minutes from one minute. Instead of a sliding scale of increasing fines based on the number of similar violations, there would be one rate of $50.
Meanwhile, however, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Norman J. Levy of Long Island has introduced an alternative bill that would create a Task Force on Communication Technology and Driver Safety. The proposal calls for the task force to make recommendations by February 1998. Its members would be drawn from the mobile phone industry, non-profit highway safety organizations, law enforcement, business users of mobile communications and several state government agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles.
