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LINCOLN -- The circumstances of Cady Reynolds' fatal accident make her parents believe that cell phone use, perhaps texting, was to blame.
A 17-year-old driver ran a red light and smashed into the side of Cady's car without ever touching the brakes.
Omaha police found no evidence that the young woman had been drinking or driving recklessly, but there was a cell phone in the vehicle.
“She was severely distracted, and we strongly believe that distraction was in her hand,” said Rob Reynolds, Cady's father.
Yet without witnesses or a voluntary admission of cell phone use, neither Reynolds nor the authorities can say for certain what happened that night in 2007.
Experts say the same things that make it hard to know if texting caused Cady's death could hamper enforcement of new laws in Nebraska and Iowa that ban texting while driving.
Both laws, passed earlier this year, take effect in July.
The laws prohibit sending or receiving text messages, instant messages or e-mails while driving.
Talking on a cell phone and other uses of electronic devices by adults will not be affected by the ban.
Col. Bryan Tuma, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol, said colleagues from around the country tell him they write relatively few tickets for violations of similar bans.
“We all know it, we all see it -- but trying to enforce it is another issue,” Tuma said.
There are no easy ways to prove that a driver was texting rather than dialing a phone number or scrolling through a contacts list.
The only way is to subpoena a person's phone record, which is unlikely to be done except in cases of serious accidents.
The experiences of other states illustrate the challenges.
Authorities issued 387 texting-while-driving tickets during a special enforcement effort in New York and Connecticut last month. They wrote nearly 10 times as many tickets for cell phone violations during the same period. Both states ban the use of handheld cell phones.
In California, which also prohibits using handheld cell phones and texting while driving, the Highway Patrol wrote more than 1,060 texting citations from January through August last year; 139,000 cell phone tickets were issued during that same period.
Those states allow authorities to stop drivers if they are seen texting.
The Iowa and Nebraska laws make texting while driving a secondary offense, meaning that drivers cannot be stopped solely for texting. Violators can be ticketed for texting only if they are stopped for another traffic infraction.
Enforcement of texting laws is difficult and enforcement of secondary laws is especially difficult, said Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a group of state highway safety officials.
But, Harsha said, “It's better to pass a secondary law than no law at all.”
As of last week, 25 states had passed texting laws that apply to all drivers. Five states, including Iowa and Nebraska, made violations secondary offenses.
Nine states ban texting by novice drivers only.
The 2010 Iowa texting law includes a ban on all cell phone use by drivers younger than 18.
A 2008 Nebraska law also banned cell phone use, including texting, by teen drivers. But violations are secondary offenses, and state records show only 13 convictions in 2008 and 2009.
State Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff, who introduced both the teen cell phone law and the new texting ban, said he had hoped to make both laws primary offenses.
But he said Nebraska didn't appear to be ready yet for stronger laws on cell phone use.
“At least it's a start, and at least we're going to be able to educate the public,” Harms said.
Safety advocates say passing laws does encourage people to stop using phones on the road and helps raise public awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.
But laws and enforcement cannot be the total solution to the problem, Harsha said.
Other steps should include public education campaigns and workplace policies banning cell phone use in company cars or on company business.
Reynolds said it will take time to change social attitudes about using cell phones and driving, just as it took time to change attitudes about drunken driving.
“It's something we see as our right to do, just as we did with drinking and driving,” he said.
Ultimately, if laws and education don't produce enough change, technology might provide answers for this problem created by technology.
Inventors are already at work on possible solutions.
One application disables the texting feature on a phone when a car is in motion.
Another product would allow local authorities to block texting by drivers. It would require people to prove that they were not driving before they could text from a moving vehicle.
To text, people would have to input random letters, numbers and symbols in the phone within a certain time period.
Harsha said it will take time to find the best way to deal with cell phones and texting, which exploded in popularity before laws and research could catch up.
“There's a lot of attention focused on this, and we just don't have all the answers,” she said.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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