BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 28 (Simitian)
          As Amended  July 7, 2011
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :24-12  
           
           TRANSPORTATION      13-1        APPROPRIATIONS      10-5        
           
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          |Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal,         |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield,     |
          |     |Jeffries, Achadjian,      |     |Bradford, Charles         |
          |     |Blumenfield, Bonilla,     |     |Calderon, Campos, Gatto,  |
          |     |Buchanan, Eng, Furutani,  |     |Hall, Hill, Mitchell,     |
          |     |Galgiani, Logue, Norby,   |     |Solorio                   |
          |     |Portantino, Solorio       |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |Nays:|Miller                    |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly,         |
          |     |                          |     |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner    |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Increases the fine for cell phone use and text 
          messaging while driving.  Extends these bans to bicycling.  
          Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Adds a test of a driver's understanding of the distractions 
            and dangers of handheld cellular telephone use and text 
            messaging while operating a motor vehicle to the list of items 
            that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) must include in 
            its examination of a person who is applying for a driver's 
            license.  

          2)Increases the total fine from $20 ($208 total bail) to $50 
            ($328 total bail) for the first offense and from $50 ($328 
            total bail) to $100 ($528 total bail) for any subsequent 
            offense of driving while using a handheld wireless 
            communications device to talk or text, or if a person is under 
            the age of 18, using any wireless communications device at 
            all.  

          3)Prohibits the driving of a motor vehicle while using an 
            electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or 
            read a text-based communication, unless the electronic 








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            wireless communications device is specifically designed and 
            configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation to 
            write, send, or read a text-based communication, and it is 
            used in that manner while driving.  

          4)Assigns a point to a driver's license for a second or 
            subsequent conviction of driving while using a handheld 
            wireless communications device to talk or text or, if a driver 
            is under the age of 18, using any wireless communications 
            device for any purpose.  This point does not apply to a 
            bicyclist who is convicted of using a handheld telephone while 
            cycling.  

          5)Allows for primary enforcement of a violation of using any 
            wireless communication device while driving for drivers under 
            the age of 18.  

          6)Prohibits a bicyclist from riding a bike while using a 
            handheld wireless communication device to talk or text and 
            establishes a total fine of $20 for an initial violation and 
            $50 for any subsequent violation.  This amount will be the 
            total amount collected and will not include any other 
            penalties, assessments, surcharges, or fees.  

          7)Establishes the Distracted Driving Education Fund and requires 
            county treasurers to submit to the State Controller $10 from 
            each fine collected for driving while texting or using a 
            handheld wireless communications device in order to fund an 
            education program on the dangers of these behaviors, but also 
            allows the treasurers to withhold a sufficient amount from 
            each fine to reimburse the courts in the county for their 
            actual, reasonable, and necessary costs associated with 
            processing those violations.  

          8)Requires the Legislature, upon appropriation in the Budget 
            Bill, to allocate the education program funds to the Office of 
            Traffic Safety (OTS) to develop and implement that program.  

          9)Includes provisions to avoid inadvertently chaptering out AB 
            82 (Jeffries and Chesbro), a bill dealing with driver's 
            licenses needed for operating firefighting equipment.  

           EXISTING LAW  :  









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          1)Prohibits, with specified exceptions, a person from using a 
            handheld wireless phone or engaging in text-based 
            communication (e.g., text messages, instant messages, or email 
            messages) while operating a motor vehicle.  

          2)Establishes a base fine is $20 for an initial offense for 
            either violation and $50 for each subsequent offense.  

          3)Specifies that these violations are primary offenses such that 
            a law enforcement officer may stop a driver who he or she has 
            cause to believe is violating these laws.  No points are 
            assigned to the license of a driver who is convicted of either 
            infraction.  

          4)Prohibits, with specified exceptions, a driver under 18 from 
            using any wireless communications device while operating a 
            motor vehicle, without regard to whether the device is 
            hands-free or handheld.  The base fine for an initial offense 
            is $20 and $50 for each subsequent offense.  

          5)Provides that the use by a driver under 18 of a handheld cell 
            phone for talking while driving is a primary offense while 
            using a hands-free device or engaging in text-based 
            communication on any mobile service device is a secondary 
            offense, meaning that a law enforcement officer may not stop a 
            driver solely for the purpose of determining whether or not a 
            driver under 18 is violating this law.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations 
          Committee, there will be an unknown increase in fine and penalty 
          revenues, with the magnitude partly depending on the deterrent 
          effect of the stiffer penalties for cell-phone use.  

          As an illustration, in 2010, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) 
          issued about 12,000 to 14,000 citations for cell phone 
          violations per month.  (No comparable data are available for 
          citations issued by local police or sheriff's departments).  
          Assuming that:  1) the increased penalties result in improved 
          compliance and a 30% reduction in citations; and, 2) the CHP 
          accounts for about two-thirds of total cell phone citations 
          statewide, the bill would:  a) Increase base fine revenues by 
          roughly $4 million and penalty revenues by about $28 million 
          annually; and, b) raise about $6 million for the new Distracted 
          Driver Education Fund per year.  








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          There would also be costs for DMV to modify its driving test 
          that are likely to be minor and absorbable and minor costs to 
          county treasurers, which could be reimbursable  from the General 
          Fund.  If reimbursable, aggregate mandate reimbursement costs 
          could exceed $150,000.

           COMMENTS  :  In 2008, the AAA Foundation reported that "over half 
          of U.S. drivers report having used a cell phone while driving in 
          the past 30 days, and one in seven even admits to text messaging 
          while driving."  Similarly, according to a recent survey 
          conducted by OTS, 47% of California drivers admitted to having 
          talked on a handheld cell phone while driving in the prior 30 
          days, and a shocking 30% admitted to having texted or emailed 
          while driving within that timeframe.  Fifty-five percent of 
          those surveyed reported that they had, at least once, been hit 
          or nearly hit by a driver who was texting or talking on a cell 
          phone.  

          The AAA Foundation also reported the results of a driving study 
          which found that:  "Dialing a hand-held device was associated 
          with nearly triple the odds of being involved in a crash or 
          near-crash, and talking or listening to a hand-held device was 
          associated with about a 30% increase in the odds of being 
          involved in a crash or near-crash.  Dialing hand-held devices 
          was found to have been a contributing factor in 3.58% of crashes 
          and near-crashes, and talking/listening on hand-held devices was 
          a contributing factor in 3.56% of crashes and near-crashes.  
          Both dialing and talking/listening on handheld devices 
          contributed to significantly greater percentages of crashes and 
          near-crashes than did any of the other secondary tasks that were 
          studied-even though some of the other secondary tasks were  
          associated with higher risk-because drivers dialed and talked on 
          cell phones much more frequently than they engaged in most other 
          secondary tasks."  

          The California prohibition against talking on a handheld 
          telephone while driving went into effect on July 1, 2008, and 
          the prohibition against texting while driving went into effect 
          on January 1, 2009.  Accident data compiled by the California 
          Highway Patrol indicates that the incidence of hand-held cell 
          phone use contributing to traffic collisions ranged between 900 
          and 1200 occurrences per year between 2005 and 2008 but fell to 
          670 in 2009.  








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          Nevertheless, in spite of diligent efforts (including, notably, 
          by the author of this bill) to reduce distracted driving, and 
          despite the unambiguous evidence that cell phone use in general, 
          and text-messaging in particular, constitutes highly 
          irresponsible and dangerous behavior, handheld cell phone and 
          text-messaging bans for drivers are clearly being largely 
          ignored by a significant segment of the population.  Given the 
          nominal penalties for this behavior and sporadic enforcement 
          efforts, it is not surprising that the public does not take 
          these bans seriously.  The author of this bill contends that the 
          laws regarding the use of wireless communications devices while 
          operating a motor vehicle have been effective, but that 
          compliance could be improved if stronger penalties were 
          established, such as increasing the fines and assigning points 
          against the records of violators.  These efforts to reduce 
          distracted driving would be further strengthened, he believes, 
          by establishing an education program designed to inform drivers 
          of the risks of talking and text messaging using a wireless 
          communications device while driving.  

          Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety, writing in opposition to 
          this bill, cites a multi-year meta-analysis of collisions 
          conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which 
          reviewed multiple jurisdictions with anti-cellphone laws for 
          drivers (including California) as well as control group 
          jurisdictions without such laws.  "The evidence from that 
          multi-state study shows that California's anti-cellphone laws 
          for driver have had a statistically insignificant influence upon 
          the rate and severity of collisions, despite a quantifiable 
          reduction in drivers' illegal use of mobile phone devices.  The 
          reason for the insignificance of hands-free use versus hands-on 
          use is attributed to the fact that the manner in which the 
          cellphone is used is irrelevant, because it is the conversation 
          itself that distracts drivers and contributes to collisions."  

          While the dangers of using electronic devices while driving are 
          well-documented, this bill additionally extends the reach of 
          current law by proposing a prohibition against bicyclists using 
          a handheld phone or text messaging.  Although such behavior by 
          bicyclists is clearly irresponsible, poses an obvious and 
          substantial danger to themselves, and puts pedestrians, runners, 
          and other bicyclists at some risk, it pales in comparison to the 
          specter of a two-ton steel-and-glass vehicle moving at 60 miles 








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          per hour with the driver's attention focused on a device on his 
          or her lap.  Hence, there clearly is a lesser urgency in 
          deterring such behavior by bicyclists.  Nevertheless, as the 
          bill establishes a comparatively small fine ($20 to $50) with no 
          penalty assessments and no assignment of driver violation points 
          for bicycle violations, one might judge these provisions to be 
          more educational in nature than punitive.  

          Legislative history:  This bill is very similar to SB 1475 
          (Simitian) of 2010, which passed the both Senate and the 
          Assembly Transportation Committee, but died on Suspense in the 
          Assembly Appropriations Committee.  
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 




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