Teens’ choice: Take the call or drive

Cy Ryan and Emily Richmond

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Ericka Sims, 18, has been driving for two years and has had a couple of close calls while using her cell phone.

"I got a text message, I looked down at the phone, I looked up and the car in front of me had stopped," Sims says. "You know the feeling when the sweat starts on your forehead? It was scary."

Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, has requested a bill at the urging of parents to prohibit minors from using hand-held cell phones while driving.

"This is a first step, and it needs debate," says Manendo, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee. "We can see if it improves roadway safety."

There has been discussion among legislators about whether such a ban should extend to all motorists. But that idea appears to have less traction than the bill targeting younger drivers.

Sims says she would support such legislation - she switched from a hand-held cell phone to an earpiece transmitter after her near-accident in March.

"Now I don't dig around in my purse all the time," Sims says. "It's a lot safer."

Julie Wylie, 17, wonders why the proposed ban was limited to juveniles. Wylie was injured last year after her car was struck by another vehicle. The other driver, an adult, was distracted while talking on her cell phone.

"It's dangerous for anyone to talk on the phone and drive," says Wylie, a student at CCSN's West Charleston campus. "Age doesn't matter."

Of more than 700 requests for bills to be drafted for the 2007 Legislature, none would prohibit adult drivers from using cell phones.

"It's likely that a bill will come up this next session," says Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. "But knowing our Legislature, it will have a tough time. Nevadans are independent and like their liberties."

Even Nevada's sheriffs and police chiefs don't back a total cell-phone ban, says Lt. Stan Olsen of the Metro Police Department.

A law already on the books covers the same territory by generally requiring drivers to pay attention, Olsen said. If legislators enacted a prohibition specifically against use of cell phones in vehicles, Olsen says, the state would then have to pass other laws to ban such specific distractions as eating a hamburger or drinking a milkshake while driving.

California was the most recent state to ban motorists from using hand-held cell phones, beginning in July 2008. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited statistics that show cell phones are the No. 1 cause of distracted-driving accidents, but there are no such statistics specific to Nevada.

If lawmakers decided to rely on anecdotal information, though, they wouldn't need to look far.

Manendo said he was behind a teenage driver last week who was lighting a cigarette with one hand and talking on her cell phone with the other.

He said there are many distractions for teens in a car - listening to the radio, smoking or sipping sodas. And then the cell phone rings.

"They don't have the experience (behind the wheel) and there are enough distractions now," he said.

Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, who previously headed the transportation committee and is expected to be majority leader in the Assembly next year, said the Manendo bill "is a pretty good idea."

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and the District of Columbia prohibit use of hand-held cell phones while driving.

In 2003 Nevada prohibited local governments from regulating cell phones in automobiles, in part because of the difficulty police might have in distinguishing how different laws applied in different jurisdictions. Representatives of the cell phone industry favored a statewide law. But they told lawmakers that wireless telephones are safety tools because they enable motorists to report potentially dangerous road hazards, accidents, emergencies, criminal activities and impaired drivers.