The Traffic Attorney - Cell Phone Laws

You may have noticed that a lot of states are passing laws pertaining to driving while using cell phones or other mobile devices. As a Maryland traffic ticket attorney and Maryland DUI attorney, I know that the Maryland law banning talking without a hands free device goes into effect in October, 2010. Virginia is also passing a similar law, to go into effect in 2011. DC was a pioneering jurisdiction and already has one in effect. In a lot of states, these cell phone violations are actually secondary violations, meaning you can't get pulled over unless you are doing something wrong.

The question is whether these laws do what they are intended to do - increase driver safety. The answer is we don't know. Look, I am all for banning texting, emailing, etc. while driving, because that type of multi-tasking really is dangerous. But the reason why these things are dangerous is because drivers who text while driving are actually taking their eyes off the road multiple times for extended periods of time in order to push the buttons on their phone. Also, it can take two hands to text and drive.

On the other hand, there just isn't any empirical evidence that holding a phone up to your ear and talking, while keeping your eyes on the road, actually makes you less capable of driving your vehicle. I understand that rational, and there are good arguments for the law, I'm just interested to see if it actually makes our streets safer.

So we'll see. I'll post more on this at a later date.