News-Record.com

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

North Carolina teens aren’t the only ones ignoring the state law that prohibits them from talking on cell phones while driving. Law-enforcement officers are ignoring it as well.

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the 2006 law has not reduced the number of kids who use their cell phones while driving. A separate survey found that enforcement of the law is rare.

This comes as no surprise. The cell-phone law is poorly written and practically unenforceable.
Imagine you’re a state trooper watching for traffic violations. Are you going to exert any effort pulling over young drivers on cell phones when:

1. It’s impossible to ascertain the age of someone driving by. (The law only covers those younger than 18.)

2. The law allows even those in the targeted age group to use their cell phones while driving, as long as they are talking to emergency personnel, a parent or spouse.

With this barn-door loophole, it’s a no-brainer why officers don’t turn on the flashing lights when a chatty teen drives past — and why teens feel free to keep talking and driving.

The truth is that people of all ages should avoid using cell phones while driving. Research has found that pairing talking (or texting) with driving can result in “inattention blindness.” Those of us who have combined the two activities shudder because we have personal knowledge of the term. Still, a law banning cell-phone use for all drivers is unlikely to get much traction.

But parents concerned about the safety of their young drivers don’t have to wait for the General Assembly to act. They can take steps designed to cut down cell-phone use in cars.

Experts suggest that parents craft a driving contract with their teens, with one of the provisions being no use of wireless devices while driving. In other words, parents need to tell their kids that if they use the cell phone while driving, they lose their keys to the car.

That is one punishment that teens won’t ignore.