Law hopes to end distracted driving habits

Just five seconds; that is the average time a driver takes his or her eyes off the road while texting. At 55 miles per hour, that is enough time for a car to cover the length of a football field — 100 yards.

When this happens, the driver is virtually behind the wheel blindfolded. And if you think there aren’t a large number of people doing this, think again. In 2011, 52 percent of drivers reported owning a smartphone. By 2014, that number had grown to 80 percent.

You can bet by now, 2017, that number is even larger.

On this past New Years Day, a new law went into effect in California. The law makes it illegal to be holding your phone while operating a vehicle.

CBS Local 2’s Kris Long recently spent an afternoon with a Cathedral City police officer who was on patrol specifically looking for drivers who were distracted due to cell phone usage.

On New Years Day, it became illegal for drivers to hold a cellphone in their hand for any reason. That includes using any of a phone’s apps, such as music playlists.

Safety officials say it plugged a major loophole in our state’s groundbreaking hands free cellphone laws.
Those laws, in effect for years, banned talking and texting on handheld phones while driving .
but, any other handheld use of a phone , shooting videos, scanning facebook, has been technically legal.

“A lot of times people think I’m allowed to use my phone, but 99% of the time if you’re driving and use the phone, that’s going to be illegal,” said Cathedral City police officer Alan Lemus.

Officer Lemus is on a distracted driver patrol utilizing an office of traffic safety grant, he is one of two officers in that city who periodically spend their shift looking almost exclusively for anyone who using a cellphone, or texting on a phone. A task he says is becoming more of a problem.

A California office of traffic safety study this year determined that 1 out of 8 drivers on the road are paying as much attention to his or her smartphone as to the road. Officials estimate that some form of distracted driving is a factor in 80% of crashes.

A wailing police siren can signal a bad day for a driver, but it could be worse, deadly accidents caused by distracted driving, are becoming more and more common, and the reason is simple…

Five seconds is the average time eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling 55miles per hour, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field, in essence, blindfolded.

“I did look at an e-mail while I was stopped. is that something you do on a regular basis, no I don’t but unfortunately I have a customer who has urgent business and they’ve been calling me all afternoon,” said Gary Altena, a Palm Desert resident who was stopped for checking on his phone.

Excuses, Officer Lemus has heard them all…

And there seems to be no particular group of drivers more likely to break this new law.

Officer Lemus says he has pulled over young drivers, older drivers and everything in between. and he feels the problem is only going to get worse, as more drivers have cellphones…

And the numbers back that up, a traffic safety study shows that in 2011, 52% of drivers reported owning a smartphone. In 2014, the last year for which numbers were available, that number has risen to 80%.

And don’t think for a minute that breaking this law while driving at night means you are less likely to get pulled over. “A lot of times you can see a reflection of the light, it’s easier to see,” said Officer Lemus. It’s something that Officer Lemus looks for while on his nighttime patrols.

Even under the new law drivers can still use their cellphones if they do it hands-free, usually voice activitated and operated. However, phones must be mounted on the dashboard or windshield or console with a phone mounted, the new law allows the driver to touch the phone once to activate or deactivate a feature or function.

Officer Lemus has seen his share of serious accidents, many caused by distracted drivers. He admits he doesn’t ticket everyone he pulls over for a violation, preferring to use an officer’s discretion, feeling at times a warning is sufficient. But he believes the new law will save lives….

“Either I give you a ticket and people might not like it, or I just tell them to be careful and at the end of the day, I still accomplish my job,” said Officer Lemus.

Remember, under the new law, drivers can still use their cellphones if they do it hands-free, usually voice activated and operated. The phones must be mounted on the dashboard, windshield or console. With the phone mounted, the driver is allowed to touch the phone once to activate or deactivate a feature or function.

The Law says cellphones can be mounted on two spots on the windshield: either a 7-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield on the passenger side or a 5-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield to the driver’s left.

Driver’s can also attach the phone holder to the console, or to the dashboard in a spot where it doesn’t block the driver’s view of the road or get in the way of airbags.