The Cell Phone Ban is not the Answer

The Albuquerque city council is considering strengthening the city’s ban on cell phone usage while driving. Distracted driving is a serious thing and there must be laws on the book that discourage such behavior. The cell phone ban is inadequate to stop distracted driving and should be replaced with widely applicable, simplified legislation that is easy to understand and enforce.

The reason why city council has to add to the law is because the way it is currently written, a person who is stopped at a light or a stop sign and using their phone is technically not in violation. It leads one to wonder what will be next. After the latest spackling of a hole found by a defense lawyer where will the next one be found?

The most troubling aspect of this law is that it only applies to cell phones and not anything else that leads to distracted driving. It is confounding if considered in the context that distracted driving is really just another form of reckless driving – “driving with a willful or a wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property”.

Instead of making new laws, offenses that are applicable within the framework of existing laws should be punishable under existing law. Whenever new laws are considered they are more often than not lengthy and the longer they get the more holes exist. It better serves the public to simplify legislation.

The cell phone ban should be wiped from the books and in its place reckless driving statutes should specify the act of distracted driving defined as the operation of a motor vehicle with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property because of any distraction.

The simpler the better and if the legal terms must be better defined, fine. Let the city attorney determine what is appropriate but remember to give them a strict word count limit and a list of words they can use so that drivers can comprehend the result.