Cell phones, new drivers are bad mix

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The plan by Sen. Jim Cudaback of Riverdale for a state ban on cell phone use by new teen drivers deserves serious consideration.

Safety experts say that cell phone use places teen drivers who are learning to pilot vehicles on their own for the first time at higher risk than older drivers when they attempt to use cell phones.

Teen drivers already are at higher risk for accidents than older drivers. Sixteen-year-old girls get into 28 crashes per million miles driven. Boys the same age get into 27 crashes, according to 2001 data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. That compares with 9 crashes per million miles for women aged 20-24, and 8 crashes for men in the same age category.

Cell phone usage has continued to mushroom since the data was collected. In Nebraska, 300,000 more people have begun using cell phones. Cudaback’s proposal ties into the graduated license program that seems to have produced a reduction in teen crashes since the law was adopted in 1999.

The law requires teens to either take an approved training course or submit a log showing they have driven at least 50 hours under adult supervision. That entitles them to a provision operators permit that has some restrictions, such as one prohibiting teens from driving between midnight and 6 a.m.

Teens qualify for a traditional license after 12 months if they accumulate no more than two points in violations, or when they turn 18.

In 1999, before the law was passed, there were 71 injury and fatality crashes per 1,000 drivers ages 16 to 20. By last year that rate had dropped to 43 crashes per 1,000 miles.

The National Transportation Safety Board recommends that states ban new teen drivers from cell phones. So far the District of Columbia and 11 states, including the nearby states of Colorado and Minnesota, have adopted such bans.

Anyone who has been in a high school parking lot recently knows that it can be difficult to find a car driven by teen drivers without a cell phone glued to their ear.

The phones themselves have become more distracting. They’re no longer just for talking. Cell phones are cameras. Users can send photos back and forth. Cell phones can be used for text messaging, which seems like a particularly dangerous thing to attempt while driving. Cell phones can be used to send and read e-mail, to download music and to browse the Internet.

Admittedly adults also jeopardize safety when they are distracted by cell phone, and some teen drivers may be able to use cell phones safely.

But there is a persuasive case that restrictions for new teen drivers could avoid needless injury and death. Nebraska should think seriously about joining the states that have enacted bans.