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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill banning hand-held cellphone use in vehicles that has failed for years to pass the Utah Legislature is another step closer to passage, after winning preliminary approval in the Senate after more than a half-hour of debate.
HB101, sponsored by House Minority Whip Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, passed 19-8 to a final vote in the Senate and was tabled because it has an impact on the budget. Moss has said that when she started trying to get the legislation passed several years ago, just 13 states had similar laws, and now 22 do.
The Senate sponsor of the bill, Senate Budget Vice Chairman Don Ipson, R-St. George, said he scheduled the bill to be heard at the same time that seven years ago, a married couple was struck on a sidewalk near his home by a driver on a cellphone, killing the man and leaving his wife hospitalized for a long time.
“This is a great bill. I think it will make the state safer,” Ipson said, calling for senators to remember the consequences of distracted driving and deal with them.
But some senators raised questions about the bill that prohibits drivers from holding or manipulating their phones, although the phones can be put on speaker or used with a Bluetooth device. Hand-held use of cellphones while driving has been illegal since 2007 in Utah, but only in conjunction with another offense.
“Now we’re going to outlaw only talking on the phone,” Sen. Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi, said, warning that he believes “pragmatically this law will create more accidents because people are not going to stop utilizing their phones” on the road for what he termed “legitimate reasons,” such as looking up an address.
Anderegg said drivers will try to hide their phone use, creating more dangerous situations. When he asked if drivers could type in an address while stopped at a traffic light, Ipson said they should pull over to the side of the road to avoid a violation.
“Very few bills make the roads less safe. This is one of them.” -Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, also said drivers would be looking away longer at phones hidden from view in their laps.
“Very few bills make the roads less safe,” McCay said. “This is one of them.”
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, said the bill “would criminalize holding an object in your hand.” Thatcher said drivers can already be punished for any distracted behavior that leads to a moving violation, such as “tailgating while eating a hamburger.”
But Senate Minority Whip Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, recounted her daughter being injured in a crash at the age of 10 that was caused by a driver using a cellphone. Escamilla said here daughter was in the hospital for three weeks and unable to walk for another month.
“It is emotional if you’re being impacted by a person distracted by being on a phone,” she said. “There needs to be accountability.”
Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said she’s teaching her 15-year-old son to drive and wants him to understand driving is a right, not a privilege. She said she supports the bill because “we need to train our kids with this law that this is best practice.”
