Arizona legislators will vote once again Monday on a bill that would limit the use of cellphones while driving. This time, the effort is aimed at teenage drivers.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 10 states and the District of Columbia ban all cellphone usage while driving. Thirty-nine states ban texting and driving. In Arizona only school bus drivers are barred from using cellphones or texting, there are no limits for other drivers.
House Bill 2359 would make it illegal for teen drivers to use a cellphone while behind the wheel.
A study released earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that newly licensed teen drivers were eight times more likely to have an accident or near miss when dialing a phone compared to when they were not.
In Arizona, the first bill introduced to ban cellphone usage while driving was in 2007. It failed. Similar measures have been introduced every year since without success. Sponsors they hope this year’s version is a compromise that will pass.
