Rather than taking a piecemeal approach by outlawing text messaging and other specific activities that distract drivers, a lobbyist for the cell phone industry is advocating giving police officers the ability to cite drivers for any distraction.
“Just singling out one behavior doesn’t fix distracted driving on the road,” said Susan Bitter Smith, who lobbies for cellular providers Alltel and Cingular.
Instead, she says reports from AAA and other traffic-safety organizations show there are many activities that distract drivers just as much as text-messaging. Bitter Smith says the state should allow law enforcement to ticket a driver doing any of those things.
The notion of a general distracted driving provision to the existing reckless driving statutes is a counter to Rep. Steve Farley’s plan to introduce legislation next year to ban text messaging while driving. The Tucson lawmaker is critical of the motives behind the all-inclusive push from the cell phone industry.
“It’s totally disingenuous when she says that,” the District 28 Democrat said.
Farley says the proposed legislation is a “transparent ruse” to protect profits. Text messages, he said, cost 10 cents each. By eliminating the messages made while people are driving, “they will lose billions. That’s the clear motivation for them.”
But Bitter Smith says Farley “obviously” doesn’t understand how cellular telephone providers bill for text messages, as the vast majority of the messages are purchased by bulk, not paid for individually.
“There’s no fiduciary connection here whatsoever,” she said.
Despite their differences on the issue, Bitter Smith says her clients and Farley are nonetheless interested in the same outcome: making the streets safe from distracted drivers.
The key to reforming Arizona’s driving laws will likely be the input from law enforcement agencies, Bitter Smith said, as they will be charged with enforcing any new distracted-driving laws.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Ron Gould, R-3, says he would prefer Bitter Smith’s approach over Farley’s if the two proposals ended up in his committee.
“There’s no real need to single one thing out,” he said. “If you’re distracted, you should be pulled over.”