Neither dialing a cell phone nor answering one is prohibited - only talking without a hands-free device. Yet some maintain that the conversation itself isn't what's dangerous.
"The problem is dialing, not talking," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer), who abstained from voting on the bill.
An exception to the bill permits motorists to use a handheld phone in an emergency.
If adopted, the New Jersey measure would not be as tough as the law New York enacted in 2001. If a police officer in New York spots someone using a handheld cell phone, the motorist can be pulled over and issued a $100 ticket. About 141,000 were issued between December 2001 and August 2003.
A study of driver behavior in New York showed a sharp drop in the use of handheld phones immediately after the law went into effect. But a year later, the study found, use had returned to nearly its pre-law level.
New Jersey legislators want violators cited for using a handheld cell phone only if they are stopped for some other violation, such as running a stop sign or speeding. Fines would range from $100 to $250, with no points assessed on a driver's record.
Legislators said that making the violation a so-called secondary offense would uphold their intent of only punishing those who create a problem by allowing their phones to distract them.
AAA New Jersey and most wireless phone companies took issue with the proposed ban in New Jersey, telling legislators that it did not make sense to focus on a single driver distraction when there are so many.
"You're only addressing a very small part of the problem," cautioned Pamela Fischer of the AAA New Jersey Automobile Club. "If we simply put a Band-Aid on this by saying we should ban handheld cell phones, are we really improving safety?"
