Limit on cell-phone use wanes in committee
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A bill to ban use of hand-held cellular phones while driving died Thursday in a state Senate committee.
Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans and sponsor of the bill, asked that his measure be shelved in the Senate Transportation Committee.
The panel does not plan to meet again before adjournment on Thursday.
Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth and chairman of the committee, said data that the committee asked for last week on hands-free versus hand-held cell phones would not be available.
McPherson said lawmakers needed that information before they acted on the proposal.
“We don’t want to take away the rights of Louisiana citizens unless we think we are doing something for them,” he said.
The measure, House Bill 146, passed the House earlier.
Badon has said hand-held cell phones pose a dangerous driver distraction.
The House, against Badon’s wishes, made the bill a secondary offense. That means it would only be a crime if drivers were stopped for another moving violation.
Badon vowed last week that he would comply with the committee’s request. But McPherson told the committee Badon was stuck in traffic and asked that his bill be shelved.
William Ankner, secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development, said earlier that preliminary data from other states shows that banning hand-held cell phones while driving trimmed accidents.
“We do not have the studies that you asked for,” Ankner told the committee on Thursday.
Badon has said he thinks it will take the death or serious injury of someone close to a lawmaker to get a cell phone ban like his through the Legislature.
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