
{"id":20861,"date":"2011-09-15T13:10:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T17:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20861"},"modified":"2011-09-15T13:10:30","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T17:10:30","slug":"chapel-hill-could-ban-phoning-while-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/15\/chapel-hill-could-ban-phoning-while-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapel Hill could ban phoning while driving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0In a move that could lead to a ban on cell phone use while driving in Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 6-2 to draft a local ordinance of such a regulation for consideration. <\/p>\n<p>Council members Laurin Easthom and Gene Pease voted against the measure. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt was not present due to illness. <\/p>\n<p>In June, Krista Slough, a UNC student who was seriously injured in a car accident last year, and Joe Capowski, a resident who witnessed the accident, petitioned the council to consider the ban. Capowski alleged that the driver of the car that hit the victim was talking on her cell phone at the time of the accident. <\/p>\n<p>In February 2010, council member Penny Rich had raised a petition for such a ban, but the council postponed the measure while waiting on a report from the N.C. General Assembly, which was considering restricting talking on cell phones while driving but has not acted on the matter. Texting while driving and the use of cell phones by drivers under 18 are both already illegal in North Carolina. <\/p>\n<p>Council members expressed concern regarding whether the town had the authority to regulate cell phone use while driving, as well as the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to enforce the regulation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly a concern throughout this country, and I think throughout the world, in terms of using cell phones in vehicles while they are moving,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d council member Matt Czajkowski said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The issue that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re facing is the pragmatic question of whether we can do it in Chapel Hill or not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said he would request an opinion from the state attorney general\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office regarding the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s authority to regulate the use of cell phones on town streets and state highways within the town. A number of streets in Chapel Hill, including Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Franklin Street and Estes Drive, are state-owned highways.  <\/p>\n<p>Rich said she felt that Chapel Hill should lead the state with such a regulation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For me, the biggest problem with talking on the phone [while driving] \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is public safety,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am very concerned every year when 30,000 kids come to school bringing 15,000 extra cars.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a dangerous setting. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a small town with a lot of cars with people on the phone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Easthom said she felt the regulation had the potential to be very confusing for residents, since it might apply only on certain streets. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My broader question is, where does it all end?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are so many things that we should not be doing that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t currently have ordinances against. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 People assume their own personal responsibility for their actions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where do we stop legislating what we shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be doing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added. <\/p>\n<p>A group from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health made a presentation to the council regarding the risks of phoning while driving, citing data that likens the danger of cell phone use while driving to that of drunk driving. Other residents questioned whether the town would be able to enforce a ban, and whether it should spend taxpayer money on a potentially unenforceable regulation. <\/p>\n<p>If the council decides to consider the drafted ordinance, it will call a public hearing regarding the regulation.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a move that could lead to a ban on cell phone use while driving in Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 6-2 to draft a local ordinance of such a regulation for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20862,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20861\/revisions\/20862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}