It seems like every day a new report comes to light about a state or community instituting some sort of cellular phone ban. But that doesn’t mean that every state in America is lining up to pass such a law.
In Louisiana yesterday, for instance, an effort to ban all handheld cell phones didn’t even get past a small Senate committee. House Bill 695 was rejected 2 to 1 by a small four person quorum (one person abstained) made up of persons from the Committee on Transportation, Highways, and Public Works. Numerous other senators didn’t even show up for the vote, and the bill is unlikely to see the light of day for the remainder of this session.
The supporter of the bill, which would have banned all handheld cellphones but allowed speakerphones and earpiece-connected devices, said that Louisiana was behind the times and that a ban likely wouldn’t be passed until after a disaster occurred.
One of the senators that voted against the bill said that all studies they’ve seen that attempted to show a correlation between cell phone bans and improvements in traffic safety were inconclusive. An individual with the Louisiana Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated something similar, claiming the NHTSA said it hasn’t been proven that talking on a cellphone leads to a greater number of crashes. That same individual said a larger danger exists from other distractions such as eating while driving or messing with the radio.