Group aims to restrict cell usage in car

Six graduate students in public health are lobbying with American Automobile Association as a class project to help ban or restrict use of cell phones while driving.

Classmates Annette Skoczylas, Kristin Kelly, Troy Creason, Jocelyn Wilson, Dana Moddy and Lisa Fuller, in June Gorski’s Principles and Practices of Community Health Education class have launched a project with the goal of passing state legislation to stop texting while driving and to restrict cell phone users to handless devices while operating a vehicle.

According to a Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. study released in January 2007, young drivers were the highest age group to use cell phones. This study found 73 percent of their surveyed participants talk on their cell phones while driving.

In 2001, Kelly was a junior in high school when she was rear-ended by another girl who was speeding and talking on her cell phone. Kelly, along with her other classmates, have all experienced, to some degree, the reckless driving habits of cell phone users.

“I’m from Orlando, and recently a semi-truck ignited a school bus killing a 13-year-old,” Kelly said.

In this incident, the truck driver admitted to talking on his cell phone, which contributed to the fatal accident in Florida on Sept. 23.

“There have been so many stories … that are coming out in the news recently,” Skoczylas said.

Skoczylas said this was a big factor in inspiring her group to lobby against cell phone use while driving.

“It’s very common, especially on UT’s campus,” Skoczylas said. “You can stand in a UT parking lot and see lots of people use their cell phones while driving … Driving is a hazard and dangerous anyway. I don’t believe they’ve made the connection that they’re putting other people’s life in danger.”

Skoczylas said the group’s ultimate goal is to pass a state law restricting cell phone use to only handless devices like the Bluetooth while driving. Their second goal is to raise awareness so people become educated about the dangers in case such legislation comes up in the state House or Senate.

“As community health educators, we are taught to assess the need of the public,” Kelly said. “We all thought this was a need.”

Kelly said that they have received criticism that if they are successful in passing legislation on this issue, it would infringe upon personal rights.

“A handful of people believe it’s another way for the government to control our lives and what we do,” Kelly said.

Skoczylas said the decision to ban cell phone usage while driving will eventually become a reality.

“I think it’s an inevitable change, but a gradual change that will come to the nation,” Skoczylas said.

Tennessee House Representative Jon Lundberg, said he supports banning texting while driving.

“If you receive a text message, you have to look away from the road,” Lundberg said.

Lundberg said he feels that the distracted driving law in Tennessee sufficiently covers cell phone usage. Lundberg describes the phenomena of texting as a technology that is new and isn’t going to go away; therefore, it needs to be specifically addressed in Tennessee legislation.

He said he plans to reintroduce a redrafted form of a bill he proposed last year to ban texting while driving in January’s session. He said he is hopeful that it will pass.

The legislation will target texting offenders similar to current punishments for seatbelt violations.

Lundberg said he hopes that at the very least, if his legislation passes, it will raise the community’s level of consciousness about texting while driving.