Letter: Cell phone users are breaking law

Monday, May 7, 2001 | 9:07 a.m.

Re cell phones:

I guess it takes a few persons of notoriety to be seriously hurt before this issue becomes a nationwide problem. Why does our local news media keep asking if we should have a bill put into law banning cell phone use while driving after an accident occurs? Dig deeper. The law exists in 50 states. You cannot be operating a cell phone in hand while driving. Wording may be different, but the meaning is the same.

North Las Vegas traffic code 9.24.010 reads, "A person shall, when operating a vehicle, give his full time and attention to the operation of the same." Full time means physically and mentally, 100 percent in control. Even with a hands-free phone, mentally you are not.

Why make new laws if we don't enforce old ones? Many states require that you have both hands on the wheel at all times. Las Vegas is a haven of cell phones. Is our corporate society in so much of a hurry they can't pull off the road to talk? It's time the authorities do their job by enforcing their own existing law. Expensive citations may help ease this problem, save some lives and also put more much needed police officers on our streets.

CHARLES A. HAGEN

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