We think the time has come for Pennsylvania to ban completely the use of hand-held telephones while driving. In fact, it is long overdue.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently passed a new regulation that makes it illegal for drivers of commercial motor vehicles to make a call or dial by pressing more than a single button. Commercial motor vehicle drivers who use a mobile phone while driving can only use a hands-free phone that is located nearby the driver, according to the regulation. There are no such regulations for drivers of passenger vehicles.The pervasiveness of cellphones in our society has resulted in many debates related to the role that cellphones play in distracting drivers.The Pennsylvania General Assembly has made some strides in addressing the issue of distracted driving, most prominently by banning texting while driving, but it still has not been able to agree that using cellphones to make and receive calls while on the road is dangerous, even deadly.Fourteen states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cellphones while driving. No state bans all cellphone use for all drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Still, 37 states and the District of Columbia ban all cellphone use by new or teen drivers, and 20 states and the District of Columbia ban all cellphone use by school bus drivers. Pennsylvania is not among either of these. Pennsylvania is, however, among the 46 states which ban text messaging for all drivers.Distracted driving citations went up by 52 percent statewide between 2014 and 2016, according to the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts. The total increased from 2,195 in 2014, to 3,099 in 2015 to 3,336 last year. Locally, the increase ranged from 10 percent in Northampton County during the study period to 50 percent in Monroe County.The increase in Carbon County was 18 percent; in Lehigh it was 27 percent, and Schuylkill came in second among local counties with a 38 percent increase.Police say it is difficult to cite drivers for texting while driving, because it is not easy to spot offenders. For that reason, there were just 10 arrests for this offense in the five-county area last year - four in Northampton, two each in Carbon and Lehigh and one each in Schuylkill and Monroe.With the advent of the ban on hand-held cellphone use by commercial drivers, there were 53 arrests for this type of violation in 2016 - 27 in Lehigh, 15 in Northampton, 10 in Monroe, one in Carbon and none in Schuylkill.Another form of distracted driving is the use of headphones. Monroe led with 31 citations issued in 2016. State police who patrol Interstates 80 and 380 and the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike say it is much easier to detect this violation. Since many travelers of these roads are from out of state, violations tend to be more frequent because of the volume of vehicles, police said.Following Monroe come Northampton with 17, Lehigh with 16, Carbon with 12 and Schuylkill with just one.In Pennsylvania, all drivers are prohibited from texting while driving, which includes sending, reading or writing a text-based message or email and from wearing or using headphones or earphones while a car is in motion.While we are at it, we want to recommend that the fine for a texting-while-driving violation be increased from $50 to $200 plus court costs and fees. According to existing state law, the violation carries no points as a penalty and will not be recorded on the record for noncommercial drivers. It will be recorded on commercial drivers' records as a violation.Last fall, Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law "Daniel's Law," which enhances the penalties for accidents caused by texting while driving that result in serious bodily injury or death. The new law provides imprisonment for up to five years if a death results from texting while driving or up to two years in the event of serious injury.No change was made, however, in penalties for distracted driving apprehension where no injuries or deaths are involved.Here in Pennsylvania there were more than 14,000 distracted-driving crashes that resulted in 66 deaths in 2015, the last year for which fatality statistics are available.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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