Daily Aztec Story:Cell phone update

Call all you want, Danielle Nation will not be answering her phone.

While driving, her cell phone will remain safely stowed away in her backseat to help avoid the temptation. Nation is one of thousands of San Diego State students facing a July ultimatum: use a hands-free device while driving or avoid using the cell phone completely.

The ban on talking on a cell phone while driving is now in full effect. For drivers like Nation, it will require some adjustment. Nation always knew that her cell phone was a distraction, even if she was hesitant to give it up. With the new ban in effect, she admits that the law is for the best and that critics are overreacting.

"People should stop complaining over little things like this. As long as you get to your destination, it's not a big deal," she said.

Offenders will have to pay at least $97 for the first offense and a minimum of $211 for each additional offence. Students have two ways to cope with the changes-stop talking or use a Bluetooth. Nation has decided not to purchase the hand-free device, saying that as a college student she would only be buying something she does not need.

University Police are on the lookout for violators, Lt. Lamine Secka said, although most people are complying with the ban.
"We have not yet written any citations for the cell phone law," he said. "It appears in my travels that most people are abiding by the new law, although I have still seen some people driving while talking. It is always difficult to assess the impact of a new law that (is) only three or four days old."

The law is controversial because its results are questionable. A 2006 study by the University of Utah compared a cell phone driver to a drunk driver, but the study draws no distinction between hand held and hand-free phones, saying that it is the conversation itself that harms a driver's cognition.

Strangely enough, adult drivers who are banned from talking on a cell phone while driving can still use their phone to send text messages. This is a loophole that Sen. Joe Simitian of Palo Alto, the author of the original bill, intends to fix. A new bill, Senate Bill 28, which has yet to be approved, would outlaw text messaging and internet use while driving.

"Texting while driving is so obviously unsafe that it's hard to believe anyone would attempt it," Simitian said. "Yet everyday observation suggests there are an awful lot of folks who do."

Nation, who has learned how to text her friends without even looking at her phone, is still not going to take any chances.
"I've heard lots of stories of people texting getting in car accidents," she said. "Life to me is more valuable than texting a friend or calling someone back."
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Writers Notes: New feature I'm adding where I add some of my feelings and observations about my story. OK, you may have noticed that "offence" misspelling, I don't know where that came from, I think an copy person/editor might have added it but I'm not sure, I never use the word 'offence.' Also I think this story is a little over played, a follow up, and the DA's State of Mind and Features section also touched on the new Cell phone law.
My story was an online exclusive because there was not enough room on the front page. They have a new contributor, yea, I'm a little jealous, he's really good haha. Just means I've got to raise my game. As I think I told Kim, my first city editor, "thats the news business."