The Distracted Truth

On June 15, 2009 the Governor of Maine signed a bill titled “Failure to Maintain Control of a Motor Vehicle” (29-A Sec 2117). The law entailed that any activity not related to driving a vehicle that leads to failing to maintain control a motor vehicle illegal. 

Police officers can issue tickets under the law to any driver that committed a traffic violation or been involved in an accident while the driver was engaged in an activity that impaired the driver to safely operate the vehicle.

The bill is branch off of two other bills that came into effect in 2003 and 2007. The laws prevent drivers under the age of 18 from using cell phones and drivers that have learner’s permits or intermediate licenses.

Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed to the Bangor Daily News (BDN) that Senator Diamond’s approach is very creative and solves the problem better than proposing several bills to Congress regarding cell phones. “People can be distracted while driving by many things; I think this may be a better approach.”

Rep. George Hogan also told the BDN in response to the cell phone driving legislation that “It’s on the minds of every state, and almost every state is more aggressive than Maine.”

So the question is, is talking on a cell phone the new drunk driving?

Report from 2002-2003, the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) stated that the United States proposed over 100 bills concerning drivers with cell phones while operating a vehicle. New York was the first among the dozen to limit cell phone use by placing a ban on hand held phones while driving.

In August 2010 Senator Diamond is sponsoring a new bill that targets distracted drivers more specifically.

“While Maine took a big step forward passing a distracted driver law in 2009, it is clear to me now that measure deals more with the effect,” said Diamond. “The proposed ban on texting while driving I have put forward deals better with the cause of the problem.”

Since the failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle has been affect the University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) has not issued any summonses or traffic warnings. Not even one written warning.

Steve Martell, of UMPD, stated “Either everyone is behaving or not getting caught! I’m sure it’s the first” in response to there being no record of a violation on the University of Maine Campus.

Captain Josh Ewing of the Orono Police Department said that there have been only two tickets issued under 29-A Sec 2117. One in October and the other in November of 2009. None of the two were believed to been involved in accidents. “This one (bill) is still very new. I think officers are alert for the violation, and have issued summonses when they felt it was appropriate. As time goes on, I think you will see an increase in the number of summonses issued for this violation.”  

Captain Josh Ewing could not respond to what caused the two drivers to be issued tickets.

“I just don’t understand how police can enforce this law?” said Tyler Smith an UMaine Alumni. “Drive around town, you’ll see countless amounts of drivers doing things they really shouldn’t while driving. I’ve even seen a guy shaving on the highway. It’s like when you were in middle school; the teacher said no passing notes but you still did.”

In 2001 the University of North Carolina studied that revealed “cell-phone use was only responsible for 1.5 percent of distracted driving accidents.”

Lauren Weinstein, of wired.com, wrote a piece on why cell phones bans should not be passed. His reasons were that cell phones only make up a small amount of distracted driving. “We should be enforcing laws against the real problem, distracted driving in general. Cell phones make a handy technological scapegoat.”

This is what Sen. Diamond has already put in place for Maine.

Maine being one of the slowest states in enforcing cell phone use on Maine roads seems to be for good reason. Sen. Diamond is looking at the bigger picture and targeting distracted driving is turning out to be a more reasonable idea.