N.J. not mincing words on phoning and texting

TRENTON - New Jersey drivers, prepare to drop those cell phones. And those BlackBerrys.

The state Assembly and Senate are expected today to approve legislation that would allow police to pull over and ticket drivers for talking on handheld cell phones or text messaging on the road.

The bill would make New Jersey the first state to make cell phone use and texting while driving primary offenses, meaning drivers could be pulled over for doing either. The state would be the second - after Washington - to specifically target texting behind the wheel.

Though New Jersey banned drivers in 2004 from talking on handheld cell phones, the violation was a secondary offense, meaning police could not pull over drivers unless they saw them violating another law.

New York, California, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., have made phoning while driving a primary offense. Texting in Washington state is a secondary offense, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The bill "sends a clear message to drivers that we need them to pay more attention to the road than their cell phones and their BlackBerrys," said a sponsor, Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D., Gloucester).

Under the legislation, drivers would be permitted to use a hands-free device to talk on the phone. Violators would be fined $100, and police would start enforcement four months after the bill is signed.

Gov. Corzine's office would say only that he was reviewing the bill. But Corzine has a history of supporting such bans; as a U.S. senator, he pushed for a federal prohibition on talking on cell phones while driving.

Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex) had long championed the cell-phone ban but met with resistance until he and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts agreed to merge it with Moriarty's proposal to ban driving while texting.

"It was obviously a compromise and a merging of two good ideas," Codey said. "We have all driven and seen people driving way too slow or erratically and we pass them, and they're animated and engaged and they have no idea where they are because they're on a cell phone."

Codey is unfazed by a lack of data linking phone use to accidents, saying motorists are not likely to volunteer to police that they were on the phone at the time of a crash.

But there are far more distractions for drivers than just cell phones, said Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. Fischer worries that phoning and texting have become a cause celebre distraction because of their visibility, and that others, like eating and reading newspapers, become more acceptable as a result.

Still, Fischer is happy that police may soon be able to pull over offending drivers; the current, weaker ban has done nothing to improve driver safety, she said. According to the results of a poll the traffic-safety division is preparing to release next week, 26 percent of drivers use a cell phone while driving, 3 percent more than did before the 2004 ban, Fischer said.

The poll also found that nearly three-quarters of state drivers are in favor of a primary ban, Fischer said.

Moriarty said it was impractical to target a wide range of distractions: should lawmakers outlaw billboards, fast-food drive-ins, radio dials, or even daydreaming behind the wheel?

"How many legislators are going to ban drinking coffee on the way to work?" he asked. Phoning and texting are "specific, identifiable repetitive tasks that are extremely dangerous. . . . People instinctively know that this [bill] is the right thing to do."