AUGUSTA, Maine - An incident at a Gardiner tollbooth on the Fourth of July weekend has sparked interest among lawmakers in tightening state laws against motorists engaging in behavior that distracts them while driving.
“A trooper saw a woman watching a TV show on her laptop as she drove through the tollbooth,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, co-chairman of the Legislature’ s Criminal Justice Committee. “We have a law on the books that you can’ t watch a TV while driving, but nothing specific about watching a computer.”
He said lawmakers should consider an overhaul of the “distracted driving” laws to specify behavior that is inappropriate. He said technology has advanced faster than the laws with laptop computers, cell phones that can send text messages, BlackBerry devices and iPods all capable of causing serious distraction to a driver.
“We have to update our laws to what people are using for devices today,” Diamond said. “We have all seen people that are clearly driving while distracted and are dangerous to everybody.”
Sen. Roger Sherman, R-Houlton, agreed. He had unsuccessfully sponsored legislation that would have limited cell phone use while driving to “hands-free” devices.
“I think we ought to be more attuned to watching what we are doing when driving and not multitasking,” he said. “It seems to me to be pretty clear it’ s stupid to be watching your laptop and driving.”
Sherman said while it is impossible to legislate common sense, lawmakers should make it clear what behavior is against the law. He said while current law makes it illegal to drive while distracted, there may have to be clearer definitions of what constitutes distracted driving.
York Police Chief Doug Bracey, president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, said he has seen many cases of distracted driving in his career and agreed lawmakers should look at laws to see if they are sufficient. He said while it may seem apparent what is distracted driving, there is a lack of data on accidents caused by distractions.
“We have some reports where we know a driver was distracted, on a cell phone, and that caused the crash,” he said, “but we do not have good data because that information is not collected.”
Bracey said at a recent meeting of the Maine Highway Safety Committee the group discussed the need to modify the uniform accident reporting form to include collection of data about distracted driving. He believes such data would bolster the case for more attention to the issue.
“The only way we have at getting that data now is if the officer writes something in the comments section,” he said.
Kennebec and Somerset County District Attorney Evert Fowle, vice president of the Maine Prosecutors Association, said he is not fond of creating new laws for every apparent problem that occurs. But he said tweaking the distracted driving law to spell out prohibited behavior is a good idea.
“I have seen lawyers, lawyers that I deal with here in Kennebec County, on their way back from Portland much more immersed in their legal work than they are in keeping their eyes on the road,” he said. “It is just ridiculous.”
Fowle said there has always been a problem with some drivers that read the mail or a newspaper while driving and the proliferation of hand-held electronic devices has made the problem worse.
“I have learned that you need to resist the impulse that every time a problem is identified, there is a law waiting in the wings that is a solution,” he said. “But in this case, I think tweaking the existing law on distracted driving will help.”
Both Diamond and Sherman said they would not be surprised to see legislation introduced in the new Legislature that takes office in December which seeks to tighten the state law on distracted driving.