
{"id":24762,"date":"2012-03-29T10:31:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T14:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=24762"},"modified":"2012-03-28T17:17:59","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T21:17:59","slug":"chapel-hill-bans-cell-phone-use-by-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/03\/29\/chapel-hill-bans-cell-phone-use-by-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapel Hill bans cell phone use by drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After more than two years of debate, the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday voted 5-4 to approve an ordinance that will ban cell phone use while driving in town. <\/p>\n<p>The ban, which applies to the use of both handheld and hands-free phones, is the first of its kind nationwide, according to Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, who drafted the ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>Council members Donna Bell, Ed Harrison Penny Rich, Lee Storrow and Jim Ward voted for the ordinance, while Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and council members Matt Czajkowski, Laurin Easthom and Gene Pease voted against it.<br \/>\nThe ordinance, which will go into effect June 1, prohibits the use of cell phones or any additional technology, like cameras or music players, while operating a car. The ordinance proposes a $25 fine for violation. <\/p>\n<p>Under the ordinance, a driver could not be cited for violating the ordinance unless an officer had cause to stop the driver for a violation of another law. The ordinance does not apply to drivers using a phone to communicate with emergency officials in an emergency situation or to drivers communicating with their parents, children, legal guardians or spouses.<\/p>\n<p>Karpinos said he included the exceptions in the proposed ordinance because he felt they would give it a better chance of being upheld if challenged on the basis of preemption by state law. However, an assistant state attorney general told the town in an opinion letter that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe the town had the authority to enact such an ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the ban, the council directed staff to prepare a public education program on the risks associated with cell phone use by drivers. Town Manager Roger Stancil said road signs would be installed at entrances to town as part of the program. <\/p>\n<p>The council had previously deadlocked 4-4 on the ordinance at a meeting from which Harrison was absent. Some council members questioned the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s authority in regulating cell phone use by drivers, as well as the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to enforce such an ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, some Carrboro leaders say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re waiting to see how the ban plays out, but would consider a similar ordinance in Carrboro. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a certain logic to matters like that having some consistency between the towns. That said, our board has not discussed it, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what our attorney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position would be, if he would have the same position as the Chapel Hill attorney in terms of the legal issues,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Dan Coleman said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My own feeling is that there is value in increased safety in a ban like this, not necessarily because of whether it is or isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enforceable, but because of the increase in awareness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Obviously they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out of the gate on this, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see how this ban works in Chapel Hill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be in a position some months or whenever from now to consider whether that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that would work in Carrboro.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Board member Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said she too would like to consider an ordinance for Carrboro, noting research that likens talking on a cell phone while driving to drunk driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that the research is there that the cell phone use is distracting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, admitting that she knew enforcement of such an ordinance could be tricky. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important, because especially in a town like Chapel Hill with fairly young drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 who do not have that long experience behind the wheel, driving with handheld devices is a terrible way to learn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>In December, the National Transportation Safety Board called for the first-ever nationwide ban on driver use of portable electronic devices. Texting while driving and the use of cell phones by drivers under 18 are both already illegal in North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After more than two years of debate, the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday voted 5-4 to approve an ordinance that will ban cell phone use while driving in town. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24762","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24763,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24762\/revisions\/24763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}