Cellphone, texting ban coming soon

Drivers, don't text. Don't gab on a hand-held cellular. Don't smoke with kids in the car.

New Jersey legislators who support bills to ban such behavior -- some of them ready for the governor's signature -- say they could save lives. They point to studies that suggest cellular gadgets lead to distracted driving and contribute to accidents. They say they speak for youngsters imperiled by secondhand smoke.

Critics agree that public safety is a worthy cause. But they say these measures go too far, impinging on the constitutional freedoms framed 231 years ago and turning New Jersey into a "nanny state," where government knows best.

"Why not get a ham sandwich bill together -- no eating while driving?" said Steve Carrellas, the New Jersey coordinator for the National Motorists Association. "How about no talking?"

Assemblyman Richard A. Merkt, R-Randolph, said the bills "tumble into the category of feel-good legislation that doesn't really do anything."

"This is one more step down the road -- and I think a very foolish road -- that says, 'Gee, if we just pass another law, we'd solve another problem,' " he said.

Others are concerned about "legal creep," in which lawmakers or courts broaden an existing ban, often to little protest.

Failure to use a seat belt in New Jersey, for instance, initially was a secondary offense, meaning that officers couldn't pull over motorists solely for that violation. Today it's a primary offense with a $42 fine.

New Jersey's anti-smoking regulations began in the 1970s with bans in some workplaces. They grew to prohibit tobacco vending-machine sales to minors; ban smoking in hospitals, government buildings and restaurants; and allow municipalities to regulate tobacco use in outdoor public places, including beaches.

"I think Americans with any shred of common sense are really offended when legislators take the attitude that they want to protect you from yourself," said George Koodray, a director of the Metropolitan Society cigar club.

The electronic-devices bill was approved by the Legislature in late June and must have Governor Corzine's signature to become law.

The smoking measure was passed by the Senate but needs Assembly approval.

Corzine's office said Tuesday he will sign the cellular and text-message legislation, although a date has not been set. In the U.S. Senate, he sponsored an unsuccessful measure to withhold federal highway funding from states that do not ban hand-held cellphones.

Lawmakers made driving while using a hand-held cellphone a secondary offense two years ago.

But many New Jerseyans didn't pay heed. A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll of 947 adults last month found that one in four sometimes or very often used a hand-held phone as they drove.

The new law would make cellular-phone use -- and texting -- a primary offense, with fines of $100 to $250.

"When people are driving while using their cellphones, they have a hard time checking their blind spots, usually don't use their blinkers and are generally less aware of what's going on around them," said Sen. Richard J. Codey, D-West Orange, one of the bill's primary sponsors.

A 2005 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concluded that motorists using cellular phones were four times likelier to get into a serious accident. It also found that hands-free devices did not decrease the risk.

A National Highway Safety Administration fact sheet said that cellular use "can pose a serious cognitive distraction and degrade performance."

Such distractions, it estimated, contributed to 25 percent of crashes.

And hands-free devices had no effect.

Merkt, the assemblyman, said that even New Jersey's initial cellphone law was unnecessary.

"Distracted driving has been illegal for years in New Jersey," Merkt said. "It's a far broader concept than, 'You can't dial. You can't text.' "

The latest anti-smoking bill was sponsored by Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union.

"Exposing children to secondhand smoke in a car has very serious, negative health consequences and it should be illegal," he said.

David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian public-policy group, questioned the intent.

"It's probably not good to smoke with kids in cars," Boaz said.

"But what's going on is people who don't like smoke are using their political power to ban it in more and more places. If we're going to forbid smoking with children in cars, why wouldn't we ban smoking in homes with children? That is the next logical step."

Regina Carlson, executive director of GASP, an anti-smoking group, said that's already being done.

"New Jersey has a law that for homes with foster children, you can't smoke in homes and cars and outdoors," Carlson said. GASP, she said, fully supports a law against smoking with children in the car.

"Our principle is that smoking can be done among consenting adults where it doesn't hurt other people," Carlson said. "We are strong supporters of civil liberties, but not at the expense of other people."

source: northjersey