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Washington's law
• Cost: Violators can be written $124 tickets
• Definition: "A person operating a moving motor vehicle while holding a wireless communications device to his or her ear is guilty of a traffic infraction."
• Exceptions: People driving authorized emergency vehicles; operating tow trucks responding to disabled vehicles; reporting illegal activity or summoning medical or emergency help; or using a hearing aid.
• Protections: Infractions do not become part of a driver's record, and insurance companies and employers can't be told about violations.
Citation count
Since Washington's cell-phone law went into effect:
• Olympia police have issued six tickets.
• Lacey police have issued no tickets.
• The Thurston County Sheriff's Office has issued no tickets.
• Tumwater police have issued two tickets.
• The Washington State Patrol has issued 18 tickets in Thurston and Pierce counties.
The Olympian
Police write few citations for violation of phone law
By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian
Local police agencies other than the Washington State Patrol have issued six tickets to drivers using cell phones illegally in Thurston County since a statewide ban took effect a month ago.
A big reason the number isn't higher, police say, is that violations of the ban are a secondary offense, meaning police can't pull over a driver solely for talking on a cell phone.
The law bars drivers from holding cell phones up to their ears but allows them to use speakers or talk on "hands-free" devices.
The Washington State Patrol has issued 18 tickets in Thurston and Pierce counties and 113 statewide, spokesman Bob Calkins said.
Olympia Police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said distracted drivers — whether they're talking on cell phones, putting on makeup or eating behind the wheel — are dangerous.
"This law addresses what we've known for a long time, that people who are doing things other than driving while they're driving are more likely to be involved in an accident," he said.
Many violators
Bjornstad said many South Sound drivers are violating the ban, suggesting it isn't completely effective as a deterrent.
It's possible that the ban will evolve in the way the state's seat belt law did, being elevated to a primary offense.
"We saw exactly that kind of evolution with the seat-belt law that has been so successful," Calkins said.
New Jersey's 2003 cell-phone law was like Washington's "watered-down" version, said Pam Fischer, director of the New Jersey division of highway traffic safety.
It made a violation a secondary offense. During the first five years it was on the books, 1,400 tickets were written statewide, she said.
But in March, talking on cell phones and sending text messages while driving became primary offenses in New Jersey. In the first month after the law took effect, officers wrote more than 13,000 tickets, she said.
"Any secondary law is weak because people don't really stand up and take notice," Fischer said.
"With a secondary law, you don't get compliance."
Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.
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