NEW BRITAIN — Dan Young says he never thought calling his mother from the road to tell her he was on his way home would make him an outlaw.
In Hilltown Township, home of the state's first local ban on handheld phone use while driving, it did. And yesterday a judge told Young, 42, that even though he was not aware of the law - Young lives in Fleetwood, Berks County - he was still guilty of violating it and will have to pay a $75 fine.
But in delivering that verdict, District Justice Robert E. Gaffney also said many questions about the legality of the Hilltown ban should be addressed by courts with more authority.
"I'll leave the more heady constitutional questions to the appellate courts," Gaffney said.
Young announced plans to appeal immediately. "I think it is a wrong law," he said.
His pro-bono attorney, U.S. Senate candidate Phil Berg, said his client did not even know what township he was in when he was pulled over Feb. 10, much less that the township had a phone ban, because there were no signs indicating as much on Route 309.
"You can't have local ordinances like this," Berg said. "It's unfair to the driver."
Berg, who handed out news releases with the briefs he submitted, argued that the state motor-vehicle law supersedes local traffic ordinances and specifically allows handheld phone use. He also said careless-driving laws already address any danger that may be caused by talking on the phone while driving.
Berg also argued that the phone ban illegally restricts freedom of speech.
"All of these questions have statewide implications beyond Hilltown," Gaffney said, explaining he had no authority to address them.
Officer John Gildea of the Hilltown Police Department told the judge that Young was driving erratically, weaving in and out of lanes without using his turn signal, and going as fast as 70 m.p.h. on Route 309 around Unionville Pike when Gildea pulled him over at 12:23 a.m.
"Initially, my observations led me to believe the driver was intoxicated," Gildea said. But then, he said, he realized Young was just talking on the phone. Gildea ticketed him for speeding and phone use while driving.
Young said that was just rude. He complained that he had worked late and told the officer he had no idea about the phone ban.
"I said, 'You are supposed to be a public servant using good judgment, I think you are abusing your power,' " Young said.
Hilltown adopted its ordinance in December, following the death of Morgan Lee Pena, 2, of Perkasie. The child was killed in a car accident police blamed on a driver distracted with his cell phone.
Hilltown was the first of three Pennsylvania communities to pass cell-phone bans in the last few months. The others are Conshohocken and Lebanon. Only one other municipality in the country, Brooklyn, Ohio, bans talking on the phone for all drivers.
Pena's death energized a movement for a statewide ban. But opponents of a crackdown say the state lacks statistics that prove phone use causes accidents.
