Ban on use of handheld cellphones while driving starts Tuesday

So let's get this straight: Starting Tuesday, Washington drivers need complete use of their hands — if not their brains.

Maybe you've noticed a growing number of motorists looking a bit more like spacemen or Secret Service wannabes, their ears sprouting tiny wires, loops or high-tech gadgets like hearing aids on steroids.

Washington is about to join five other states and the District of Columbia in banning the use of handheld cellphones while driving.

But even as many drivers are grumbling about the hassle of it all, the new law isn't as tough as some, including its main proponent, would have hoped.

For one thing, you can still talk on your cellphone, using "hands-free" devices, despite studies suggesting that simply having a phone conversation can impair you as much as being drunk.

And unlike most of the other states with cellphone bans, in Washington it's just a "secondary" offense. That means troopers have to see you do something else — like changing lanes without signaling — before they can pull you over.

Even if you do get busted, it's up to the officer whether to give you the $124 ticket, based on the danger you appear to be causing.

"I feel like this is a good start ... half a loaf is better than nothing at all," state Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, said Wednesday. She's been pushing for limits on drivers' phone use since 2001.

Eide has wanted to make gabbing on your handheld phone a primary offense, so the cops could stop you just for that.

But she couldn't get enough support from fellow legislators, and some wondered aloud what else she'd want to stop drivers from doing — eating hamburgers?

Will law improve safety?

Official types say that only time will tell whether the new law, which cleared the Legislature last year, will make Washington roads safer.

But Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in Virginia, says don't get your hopes up.

"A law like this has a great effect on making people feel good about passing a law," Rader said. "But it's not going to have much effect on highway safety and on cutting down on distractions."

The car club AAA Washington, which also wanted a tougher law, advises members to avoid driving and talking, period. Spokeswoman Janet Ray says a cellphone in the car should be considered "a great emergency tool," not for routine conversations.

"Whether you are holding the phone in your hand or talking on a hands-free device, there still is that cognitive interruption."

When Washington drivers were called in a February poll for Pemco Insurance, 23 percent said phone calls should never be legal while driving — while 61 percent said the calls should be allowed only with hands-free devices. In the same poll, 60 percent said violating the upcoming ban on handheld phones should be a primary offense.

"We'd prefer that drivers didn't talk on their cellphones at all," said Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste. "But if you must, please stay safe by using a headset or speakerphone."

But is even that safe?

No, says Frank Drews, a University of Utah researcher. For a study published in 2006, he and fellow researchers recruited 40 adults and put them in driving simulators. They tested them with and without cellphones, and again after a couple of belts of vodka and orange juice.

What they found was that drivers on cellphones, whether they used their hands or not, drove just as badly as ones with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent, the legal limit in most states.

"What the conversation does is pull their attention away from the road," said Drews, an assistant professor of psychology. "Your ability to respond to signals in the environment is delayed."

Drews said Washington's law could give drivers a "false sense of security" when they use hands-free equipment.

No way of knowing

Still, little hard evidence has been gathered about how many crashes cellphone use actually causes. Police say drivers who get into accidents while using their phones aren't likely to admit it.

In 2006, nearly 210,000 Washington drivers were involved in collisions, and only 1,300 admitted talking on the phone at the time. Eide, for one, says she regards that as "gross underreporting."

The Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said "driver inattention" contributes to a quarter of all crashes. The people in the cellphone business say they're just a small part of the problem.

"Driver distraction is a broad and varied issue," said Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA — The Wireless Association. "You have people eating, reading, grooming, caring for a pet, reaching for a CD ... The list goes on and on."

According to CTIA, from 1994 to 2004, the number of highway crashes in the U.S. dropped by about 5 percent even as the number of wireless subscribers exploded by 655 percent. They say that debunks a link between phone use and collisions.

Still, the CTIA doesn't object to Washington's law.

"The bottom line is drivers need to be responsible when they're behind the wheel," Farren said. "If that means not making the phone calls, that's fine with us."

The industry initially opposed Eide's attempts to restrict drivers' cellphone use. But lately it has become more supportive, as alternatives to handheld phones have come on the market.

Although few states restrict cellphone use by all drivers, 17 states now prohibit novice drivers from using the phones, handheld or not. And in at least six states that don't have statewide cellphone bans, some cities have passed their own restrictions.

In New York, using a handheld cellphone became a primary offense in 2001 and carries up to a $100 fine. The number of citations has increased every year, topping 302,000 last year, said Nick Cantiello, spokesman for the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.

Eide points to about 50 countries that ban cellphone use by drivers. She says she may try again in a couple of years to get it made a primary offense here.

She notes that the state's seat-belt law was passed as a secondary offense in 1986, and became a primary offense in 2002 because people learned more about how seat belts save lives. Now Washington is a model for other states on seat-belt use.

In the meantime, Eide says, she'll still worry about people who make phone calls while driving.

"But at least now they'll have both hands on the wheel."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com. Times news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.