Restrictions on cellphones will bolster safety, police say
After years of revving up law enforcement and lawmakers’ tempers and fatality statistics, cellphone use while driving is on a direct collision course with unlawfulness.
Saturday is the first day that the enacted Assembly Bill 151 meets the road. Law enforcement personnel will begin stopping offending motorists to issue warnings. Ticketing, which includes fines starting at $50, begins Jan. 1.
The law takes aim at hand-held cellphone use, but drivers will be able to talk on a mobile phone if they used a hands-free device.
About 3,500 crashes and 71 fatalities since 2005 influenced by distractions such as texting and talking on the phone have been reported, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.
Roy Chandler, retired Metropolitan Police Department officer and coordinator of the Clark County Coroner Visitation Program, said he already has integrated facts about the new law into his program.
He shows at-risk youths a video titled “Sighting a Gorilla,” in which the teens are to watch and count two teams hurl balls at each other. A gorilla walks on screen for eight seconds and then Chandler quizzes the participants on how many balls each team behind it had tossed.
Answers vary but rarely hit the mark, he said.
“The point I’m trying to make is you just proved to yourself you can’t multi-task,” Chandler said.
The tactic is different than spewing statistics or showing gory videos, he said.
“ ’Scared Straight’ doesn’t work, but reality does,” he said.
Come Saturday, reality will be that Nevada becomes the 31st state to enforce a ban on texting by all drivers and the ninth state to outlaw use of cellphones unless they are hands-free devices.
Fines are $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second and $250 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Law enforcement personnel around the valley said the ordinance will be a stronger tool in their arsenal to keep motorists safe.
“Driving is complicated enough as is without distraction,” Henderson Police Department spokesman Keith Paul said.
Henderson police officers got a jump start on enforcement Aug. 1. The department banned its officers from using hand-held cellphones and opted against the exception of police, which is stipulated in the new ordinance.
“We’re trying to set an example for the motorists out there,” Paul said.
Metropolitan Police Department officials also said its officers will not honor the police exception to the ordinance.
“Sheriff (Doug Gillespie) expects us to hold ourselves to the same standards as everyone else,” department spokesman Bill Cassell said.
Before the ordinance, drivers could be cited for being preoccupied via a “failure to pay full-time attention” ticket.
“You’d be shocked with some things people do while driving,” North Las Vegas Police Department spokeswoman Chrissie Coon said. “It’s a pretty big issue.”
Cellphone use tops the list, she said.
Cassell said responding officers often ask during their initial line of questioning if cellphones were in use.
“Everybody knows a significant number of infractions are cellphone
involved,” he said.
He welcomed the new law.
“This will be another tool that can be utilized by our police officers to keep our communities safe,” he said.
Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.
