California is a great booster of trends and ideas. It is also a state where the idea of freedom is mixed up with the automobile and the lure of the open road.

Yet for all its free-and-easy lifestyle, California is emerging as a tough proponent of traffic safety laws, particularly on the use of cell phones. Pennsylvania could learn something here.

As reported by The New York Times, California on July 1 required that all drivers use a headset if using a cell phone -- the fifth state to do this. However, under a separate law, drivers under the age of 18 can't use any sort of mobile phone, a law enacted by 13 other states.

Enough evidence has emerged from studies that show using a cell phone while driving is dangerous -- a finding that confirms people's experience on the road. One oft-cited study found that a driver talking on the phone is four times as likely to have an accident, a rate comparable with drunken driving. Nor does it seem to matter whether the cell phone used is hands-free or hands-held.

These facts argue that California should treat all its drivers as if they were under 18 and ban the use of all cell phones in vehicles. But at least the state has made a start to deal with the problem and has a law that should instill caution in younger drivers.

Compare that with Pennsylvania, where several bills have been left to languish in committee (one of them was sponsored by Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, and proposed banning drivers from using hand-held cell phones and text-messaging).

As California goes, so often goes the rest of the nation. But does Pennsylvania really need to lag behind again on something so obvious? Driving is a privilege, not a right. It inhibits nobody's freedom to insist that drivers keep their hands on the wheel and not talk their way into needless accidents.