Texting at the wheel may face N.J. ban

TRENTON - New Jersey was one of the first states to outlaw cell-phone use while driving.

Next up: text messaging?

Three South Jersey lawmakers say texting while driving is even more dangerous than using a cell phone because it requires drivers to divert their hands and eyes. And they've introduced a bill to ban it.

Democratic Assemblyman Paul Moriarty admits to having texted while driving. And he says he sees others do it all the time.

"I see both of their hands on a BlackBerry, and I can only assume they're using their knees to hold the steering wheel," said Moriarty, one of the bill's sponsors.

No other state has banned the practice yet, though at least two are considering it.

New Jersey is one of only four states to ban cell-phone use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; Washington D.C. has a similar ban.

But New Jersey's law, unlike those of the other states', prohibits officers from pulling over offending drivers unless the drivers are violating another law.

Under the bill introduced last week by Moriarty, David Mayer (D., Gloucester) and Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D., Camden), police could pull motorists over just for the texting violation.

AAA spokesman David Weinstein said texting while driving could - and should - be prosecuted under current distracted-driving laws.

AAA and cell-phone companies have generally agreed in their opposition to such measures. Both say new laws make no sense when drinking coffee or putting on makeup could be just as dangerous.

That argument is compelling to Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts - who will control whether the bill even gets a vote.

Roberts said he was not yet endorsing or rejecting the bill.

"I want to take a careful look at the whole issue of driver distractions because we live in a technologically advancing society. We obviously had a problem with cell-phone usage, which we confronted," he said.

Senate President Richard J. Codey, who sponsored the cell-phone ban, said that banning texting made sense and that he would support a ban.

That is, if the Assembly would get on board with making cell-phone use a primary offense. "The phone is used more frequently in the car than a text message," said Codey, (D., Essex) who said phones were contributing more and more to accidents among teen drivers.

Moriarty said he was not so sure cell-phone use should be a primary offense. Unlike texting, "it's possible for a person to talk and keep their eyes on the road," he said in an interview via cell phone while driving.

A 2006 study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. found that 73 percent of drivers talk on cell phones while driving. But it also showed that texting was becoming more prevalent, with nearly a fifth of drivers admitting they typed while driving.

Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety, said she thought texting while driving was already illegal under the state cell-phone law but did not know whether anyone had been ticketed for texting.

Fischer feared the texting bill could add confusion to what she deemed an already confusing and rather toothless cell-phone law.

"They said it would improve safety. Well, it really hasn't done that" - because it's the conversation that is the distraction, she said. "I just think we really need to understand how this new technology is affecting what we do in the car, and the key here is we have to effect behavior change."

Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) said a law banning texting could nip the problem before it gets worse. He said he thought the cell-phone ban was passed too late to be effective.

"Before this gets too far out of hand . . . let people know they can get a fine, and maybe before people get too comfortable doing it they will think twice about it." Himself included.

"I'm guilty. Absolutely," Sweeney said. "I know it's wrong and I do it. I don't know who hasn't at one time or another."