A Good Call on Cell Phones?

A Good Call?

With all the serious problems California faces, it’s good to see that in 2007 the Governor and the Legislature faced down one of the most pressing concerns of the day: Teenagers using cell phones.
In particular, teenagers using cell phones while they drive. Evidently the nattering of high school cheerleaders was so annoying to the Legislature that they banned all teenaged drivers from operating cell phones while in the driver’s seat as of January 1, 2008. Mind you, they’ve also banned text messaging while driving, which a sensible driver wouldn’t attempt anyway, but when has a teenager been sensible?
The machinery of government, in fact, spent most of last year going after cell phone users of every stripe. As of this summer, even adults won’t be allowed to use the hand-held cells while driving due to a spate of accidents, as well as voters’ complaints about long annoying telephone cell calls from bosses who were driving. No, if you’re going to conduct business in your car by phone, you’ll have to buy a Bluetooth headset or other “hands free” device. Good news for the sellers of Bluetooth, I suppose.
The exception is “emergencies.” What constitutes an “emergency” is somewhat vague. One would think that if you’re going through an emergency, you would pull over to the side of the road rather than make a call, but priorities have shifted in this age of wonders. (“Honey, I’m about to crash so I thought I’d call to tell you not to wait dinner for me.”)
It didn’t take a lot of political courage to pass these bans, as cell-phone using drivers engender the same level of anger with the voting public as convicted felons and used car salesman.
Years ago, when I conducted a solo law practice in Southern California, one client traded me legal services for her mobile phone. In that age, “mobile phones” were contained in large suitcases and resembled a WWII walkie talkie. The phone had 20 minutes of talk time on the battery and if I made three calls a month from my car, the bill could have paid for a luxury car.
While tooling down the freeways I sometimes had to juggle the steering wheel and this monster, which operated on radio waves, not satellite. If you saw me weaving on the road, it was because I was trying to find a good spot for reception.
Which brings us full circle to the new laws on cell phones and driving. The ostensible reason for the restrictions is that too many people were distracted by their phones and got into accidents. By that same logic, one could also ban driving with children and spouses in the car.
What’s next? Banning reading the newspaper while driving? No more DVD movies on long solo drives? What am I going to do when I’m bored and tired of the radio? When will I ever call my mother? And what should I do if my hand-held cell rings while I’m on my way to Eureka? Should I wait till I park to see what the message is or should I pull over to the side of the road just in case it’s something important—like my son asking me to bring a pizza home?
Arnold, you and the Legislature need to go back and tinker with the law a bit. In the meantime, I gotta take this call.