This editorial was published by the Times-News of Twin Falls.
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Distracted driving - especially texting and driving - is an epidemic.
Plenty of statistics back up both the prevalence and the danger of using a cellphone while driving. A 2013 study by the U.S. Department of Transportation determined that, at any given daylight moment, 660,000 Americans were using cellphones while driving. According to Department of Motor Vehicle statistics, about one-quarter of wrecks each year are caused by cellphone use, and the National Safety Council reports that cellphone use while driving causes about 1.6 million crashes each year.
In Idaho, there were 64 distracted driving deaths in 2016, a 25 percent jump from the previous year, according to an American Automobile Association study.
But you don't need those statistics to convince you. Just look around at fellow drivers next time you're on the road. At stoplights, stop signs and while barreling down the interstate, cellphone use is rampant. In our ever-distracted culture, simply driving is not enough to hold drivers' attention.
That needs to be changed in Idaho.
Blaine County officials announced this week they would start enforcing a policy - passed in 2016 but not enforced until now - banning all cellphone use without a Bluetooth or hands-free device while driving. Several cities in Blaine County already had similar ordinances, but the policy will now be enforced countywide.
It's already illegal to text and drive in Idaho, but law enforcement is quick to point out that it's difficult to enforce. Without a warrant to search the phone, it's almost impossible to prove that a driver was texting instead of searching for a song to play or dialing a number. The difficulty of proving a driver was texting - or proving after a wreck that they were distracted while driving - should be factored into the above statistics. All of these numbers are likely smaller than the real figures.
A bill to ban all hand-held cellphone use while driving was voted down in the Idaho Senate this past legislative session with a 22-13 vote. In February, a similar bill failed in Utah. Nevada passed a law banning all cellphone use while driving in 2011.
Despite the bill's failure in Idaho, Sen. Bert Brackett, a Republican from Rogerson who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, says the bill started a conversation.
As Brackett points out, as a state, "we don't like the government to tell us what we can and what we can't do." That was the rationale behind many of the 22 votes against the bill. It was a personal freedom issue.
But as said in the famous quote - attributed to many different people, but most definitively to legal philosopher Zecheriah Chafee Jr. - "Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins."
Sen. Brackett compares the cellphone use bill to seatbelt rules. It felt like an infringement at first, but once the dust settled, everyone agreed it was a pretty sensible law. It's not the same, though. If you don't wear a seatbelt, you're probably only putting yourself at risk. If you're using your phone when you drive, you're swinging your arms in the space of other drivers. Forget personal safety. This is about the safety of other innocent, attentive drivers.
Idaho lawmakers should do the right thing and address the state's distracted driving laws. Cellphone use puts everyone at risk, and they should not allow deaths to continue to pile up.
