By Brad Cooper,Knight Ridder Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The sky was clear. The pavement was dry. Traffic was routine for a weekday afternoon.

As the 17-year-old driver exited U.S. 69 in Kansas, he rolled his pickup as he tried to grab a ringing cell phone from the passenger-side floorboard, police said. He was not badly hurt.

“There was no reason for him to go off (the ramp) other than he just took it too fast, and that was because he was distracted by the cell phone,” said Eric Houston, the police officer who investigated the crash last summer.

Cell phones and teens are becoming an increasingly dangerous combination on the highway, traffic-safety advocates say. Teens already account for a disproportionate share of traffic fatalities, and wireless phones exacerbate the problem, they say.

Eleven states and the District of Columbia have put limits on teens using cell phones while they drive. At least 11 other states have considered such laws, including Michigan, which is poised to ban cell-phone use by drivers younger than 18.

Now the National Transportation Safety Board is urging other states to pass similar laws for teens learning to drive. “We know that when you’re learning a skill, you should not be distracted while you are doing it,” said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the safety board. “Anything that takes away from the total focus of learning how to drive is a distraction,” he said.

Some teens recognize the risk, but others discount the danger that cell phones might pose. They also do not understand why young people should be singled out when wireless phones are as much of a distraction to adults.

The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board comes at a time when people of all ages are using cell phones more frequently while on the road.

A federal study found that last year 8 percent of all U.S. motorists, or about 1.2 million drivers, used cell phones while operating their vehicles at any given time.

The study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the percentage of drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 who talked on handheld cell phones increased from 3 percent in 2002 to 8 percent last year.

“The biggest concern for young drivers is their lack of experience,” said Lt. John Eickhorn of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

“When you add something to the mix on top of their inexperience, it only equates to more crashes with injuries and fatalities.”

Some traffic-safety experts say the safety board’s proposal is well-intentioned, but they question its effectiveness.

“Enforcement is a big problem,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research organization that is funded by auto insurers. “It’s difficult for officers to readily ascertain the age of the driver, and it’s difficult to determine if the driver is using a hands-free phone.”

The wireless phone industry supports efforts to improve highway safety but believes they should focus on all potential distractions. “If you single one possible distraction out, you could be doing a disservice by creating a false sense of security that you’ve taken care of the potential problem,” said John Walls, spokesman for CTIA – the Wireless Association. “Young drivers face a lot of potential distractions, from playing their music too loudly to other kids in the car to talking on a cell phone to eating. The list goes on and on.”

Capt. Chris Ricks of the Missouri Highway Patrol said education, not necessarily more laws, is the answer. He said young drivers must recognize that the distraction is just the start of what can go wrong.

“They don’t know how to handle it once they get to a problem,” Ricks said.

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(c) 2005, The Kansas City Star.

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AP-NY-11-20-05 0600EST

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