Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 8:01AM |  32°
MENU
Advertisement
Eileen Miller, of Scranton, who lost her 21-year-old son in a crash involving a distracted driver, watches Wednesday, May 10, 2023, in Harrisburg as the state Senate Transportation Committee approved a bill that would ban use of handheld cell phones while driving.
1
MORE

Push to ban the use of handheld devices by Pa. drivers formally launched

Ford Turner / Post-Gazette

Push to ban the use of handheld devices by Pa. drivers formally launched

HARRISBURG — The latest legislative push to have Pennsylvania join all neighboring states and ban the use of handheld cell phones by drivers was launched formally on Wednesday when a Senate committee passed a bill under the hopeful gaze of Eileen Miller.

The Scranton resident’s 21-year-old son, Paul, was killed in 2010 in a crash involving a distracted driver, and in most of the years since, Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe, has been trying without success to get lawmakers to approve a bill to get cell phones out of the hands of drivers. On Tuesday, the Senate Transportation Committee passed the latest version of Ms. Brown’s bill by a 13-1 vote.

“It feels great,” said Ms. Miller, whose son died when he was on his way to work at a supermarket and a truck crossed a grassy median and struck his car head-on. A few months after this death, she told a reporter, “Paul’s death has just devastated our family. I’m not sure what the most effective thing for me to do would be, but I know I have to do something.”

Advertisement

Ultimately, a New Jersey tractor-trailer driver pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the crash, which occurred on July 5, 2010, on Route 33 in Monroe County.

Slow bumper to bumper traffic on the inbound Parkway East due to an overturned vehicle accident on the outbound Parkway West during the morning rush, Tuesday March 20, 2018 in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After spike during pandemic, Pa. traffic fatalities dropped in 2022

On Wednesday, Ms. Miller watched as Ms. Brown delivered a plea to lawmakers in a Capitol meeting room to stop drivers in Pennsylvania from handling cell phones. Ms. Brown said she has been working on the issue for nearly 10 years, first as a state representative and then as a senator following her win in last year’s election.

“If there is anybody in this room – I would ask you to stand up, I would ask you to raise your hand – if you do not think that cell phone use, people holding their cell phone, texting, distracted while driving, is not a problem,” Ms. Brown said. Alluding to issues that complicated passage of bills in the past, Ms. Brown said the version acted on by the committee was the “absolute best” the Legislature was going to see.

The state already has a law that prohibits texting while driving. It has been widely criticized because it does not ban making phone calls or checking websites while driving.

Advertisement

“Right now we are doing nothing. The texting law is not enforceable. It is not working,” Ms. Brown said.

Other states that already have laws barring the use of handheld devices by drivers include all of Pennsylvania’s neighbors: Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia. Advocates have pointed out that a Pennsylvania ban would lessen confusion among drivers making a long-distance trip through several states.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 25 states have comprehensive bans on cell phone use while driving.

In the last legislative session, the bill got pushback from lawmakers who were concerned it would be a source of “pretextual” traffic stops, in which a driver is stopped for a relatively minor offense in the belief that a more serious offense may have been committed. Broken taillights are another traffic stop cause sometimes called pretextual.

East Run Road goes through the colorful rural hillsides in Grant Twps., Indiana County in this 2017 file image.
Ed Blazina
‘Beautiful and Deadly’: Rural roads have disproportionate share of traffic deaths

Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Philadelphia and chairperson of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, said those types of traffic stops are believed to disproportionately involve people of color.

On Wednesday, the committee in a split vote passed an amendment that stripped out provisions on the reporting of data on traffic stops. Committee Chairman Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria, said the amendment was discussed with the Fraternal Order of Police and Pennsylvania State Police, and was necessary for the bill to have their support.

The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Marty Flynn, D-Lackawanna, was among those who voted against the amendment and said he and others “don’t see information as a bad thing.” Ms. Brown, responding to Mr. Flynn, said she did not disagree with him, but that she believed collecting data on traffic stops should be proposed in a separate bill.

In an interview Wednesday, Ms. Bullock said her concerns from last session remain the same. She said she hoped to work with Ms. Brown and others to either amend the bill later in the legislative process, or have a system of traffic stop data reporting created through a separate piece of legislation.

The bottom line, Ms. Bullock said, was that the state must have a system in place to analyze “what is happening in traffic stops in this Commonwealth.”

Ms. Brown’s bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

First Published: May 10, 2023, 9:04 p.m.
Updated: May 11, 2023, 3:48 p.m.

RELATED
In this June 2022 file photo, a man uses the Waze navigation app while driving through Greensboro, N.C.
Anthony Hennen
Pennsylvania may join ban on using cellphones behind the wheel
SHOW COMMENTS (45)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Malphine Fogel, 95, talks to the Post-Gazette about her son, Marc Fogel, who was detained in a Russian prison for more than three years and is now on his way home on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Butler.
1
news
With wedding soup and lasagna, Marc Fogel's mother prepares for his homecoming
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II walks around the field before an NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Denver.
2
sports
‘Trade Tomlin or sell the team’: Billboard put up in Pittsburgh targeting Steelers ownership
Toronto Blue Jays' Spencer Horwitz, right, walks to the dugout after striking out as Texas Rangers' Jonah Heim celebrates the team's win in a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
3
sports
Source: Pirates first baseman Spencer Horwitz to miss start of spring training
U.S. Sen. elect David McCormick (R) speaks at a press conference in the Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts Garden Downtown Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, following the Associated Press declaring him the winner of his senate race against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D).
4
news
McCormick says he supports Trump ‘100%’ ahead of RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard confirmation votes
President Donald Trump greets Marc Fogel at on the South Lawn at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.
5
news
Feeling like the 'luckiest man on Earth,' Marc Fogel returns to U.S. after more than 3 years in Russian custody
Eileen Miller, of Scranton, who lost her 21-year-old son in a crash involving a distracted driver, watches Wednesday, May 10, 2023, in Harrisburg as the state Senate Transportation Committee approved a bill that would ban use of handheld cell phones while driving.  (Ford Turner / Post-Gazette)
Ford Turner / Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story