TEMECULA: Still texting in Southwest County

They're hard to spot, but some motorists are still texting despite new law

By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer | Tuesday, January 6, 2009 8:28 PM PST ∞

TEMECULA ---- Call it cellular disobedience.

Some Southwest County residents are still texting while driving, sending tiny packets of information from their phones despite the new law that prohibits the practice.

The law, written by the same state senator responsible for the cell phone law, became effective Thursday.

A brief road trip in Temecula on Monday that traveled congested stretches of Rancho California Road, Winchester Road and Jefferson Avenue found numerous people with one hand on the wheel, who were glancing down at their laps and/or looking to the right, the telltale signs of texting while driving.

If cited by a police officer, those texters will face a $20 fine for a first violation. Caught a second time, they will be tagged with a $50 fine.

A young woman who asked not to be identified ---- "I'm going to get in trouble," she explained ---- said she has been texting while driving recently, even though she knows it's illegal.

The young woman, a sales associate at a cell phone store, said she has a Blackberry phone with a keyboard, which, while making it easier to compose long messages, is more difficult to use while driving.

"The keys are so small," she said, holding up her phone.

As she described the struggle to compose a coherent message behind the wheel, the young woman found herself making an argument for the new law.

"It's better," she grudgingly offered.

The texting law was passed to close a sort of loophole in the cell phone law, which banned driving while talking on a cell phone. That law, which went into effect July 1, was written well before texting became a phenomenon.

The underlying argument for both laws, as detailed by proponents, is that talking and texting are a dangerous distraction for motorists that compromises the safety of public roads.

Critics of the laws call them another example of the state legislature's seemingly insatiable desire to turn California into a "nanny state." They are also a waste of ink, critics contend, because of existing laws that prohibit unsafe driving.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler said the texting law is already beneficial, even if it does overlap with existing rules of the road that allow an officer to pull someone over for "unsafe" driving, because of the discussions it has sparked.

"There probably would not be the degree of publicity without the law," he said. "I think people are much more aware of the dangers of texting while driving."

In 2007, according to the Highway Patrol, eight fatalities and 534 injuries were attributed to cell phone use.

The numbers for 2008, which should show the tangible effect of the cell phone law, will be available this summer, Kohler said.

As of Monday afternoon, Temecula police Chief Jerry Williams said he hasn't heard a report of his officers writing a ticket for texting while driving, but he said the department will enforce the law in the same manner it has enforced the cell phone law.

In the six months or so that the cell phone law has been in effect, Williams said, his department has written a couple of hundred tickets.

During routine patrols, Williams said, his officers will look for the common signs of a preoccupied driver: swerving, not leaving the line in a prompt manner when a light turns green, or other types of vehicular miscues.

If the officer determines that texting caused the preoccupation, the motorist could get pulled over.

"A driver is required to pay attention on the road," he said.

Numerous studies have shown, Williams said, that inattention is a primary factor in vehicular collisions.

Some business professionals have vowed to continue texting while driving because of the importance of providing a prompt response to clients or supervisors.

J.J. Swanson-O'Neal, a Lake Elsinore-based real estate agent, is not one of those people.

"I'm behind the law 100 percent," she said, adding that texting while driving is one of the most distracting things that a driver can do.

Swanson said there appears to be a generational divide with texting, with people under 30 making up the primary texting population.

"Anyone over 30 I can still call without a problem," she said.

Jose Carvajal, spokesman for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, is a member of that texting generation, and the 28-year-old said it will be tough to curb his texting-while-driving ways.

"I drove today to work and lunch, and I consciously made the effort not to text," he said. "It was hard."

Carvajal said it's especially difficult for his generation because, as a group, they are comfortable doing multiple things at the same time.

"It's an instinctual urge to want to be doing something else," he said. And that urge is strongest when stopped at a stoplight or stuck in traffic, he added.

For those who either don't want to or can't fight the urge, cell phone companies have started to roll out phones that use voice recognition software to compose and send text messages.

Someone using a headset and one of those phones could vocally text to their heart's content behind the wheel.

For more on the new law, including the restrictions for motorists under 18, visit http://dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/.

Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.