Town council considers banning cell phone use while driving

Chapel Hill would not be the first town to ban the use of cell phones while driving.

Addressing growing public safety concerns, cities from Detroit, Mich. to Oahu, Hawaii, have either already passed a ban or are discussing its possibility.

“Everybody in the world has a cell phone, everybody uses it and now everybody’s texting, which makes it even worse,” said Peggy Hovan of the Brooklyn, Ohio, Police Department, whose town has had a ban for 10 years.

But despite the many available examples across the country, Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich said they will not look to other towns for guidance until they work out the ban’s details.

Banned in Brooklyn

Town Council members in Brooklyn, Ohio, lobbied for a cell phone ban and succeeded in 1999.

The fine for violation — $3 in 1999 — is now $115.

The first year, police issued 79 citations. Since that date, the number has jumped from to 404 in 2005.

At least 669 citations were given last year.

In Ann Arbor, Michigan, council member Stephen Rapundalo has pursued a ban for the town.

He said thousands of people are killed annually in accidents caused by cell phone distraction.

“I’m amazed at the amount of science that demonstrates that it’s a major and fast-growing public safety issue,” Rapundalo said.

At least 1,475 cell phone-related crashes are reported in North Carolina annually, according to data from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center.

Like some Chapel Hill council members, Ann Arbor officials have questioned their ability to enforce a ban.

But if the town wants to prove that cell phones contribute to distracted driving, police need to be able to cite specific incidents, Rapundalo said.

Jumbled jurisdictions

Rich, who proposed a ban for the town in January, is not concerned with how other towns pursued the issue.

First, council members need to find out whether they have the authority to pass the ban, she said.

The town isn’t sure if it can ban cell phone use while driving on all streets or just those maintained by the town. Streets such as Franklin Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard are the state’s responsibility, and the ordinance might not cover them, Rich said.

The town has proposed separating one ordinance banning the use of cell phones into two categories — one for state streets and another for town streets.

Enforcing separate ordinances would be difficult as town and state streets are interspersed, Rich said.

Chapel Hill’s proposed ordinance would build upon the existing state law that bans texting while driving.

“The car is not meant to be a phone booth,” Rich said.



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