But, Prieger said, "if you've ever used a cellphone in a car and you're honest with yourself, it's hard to doubt that at some level it doesn't make you a riskier driver."
Supporters of California's "hands-free" law cite Highway Patrol statistics showing more accidents involving hand-held phones than hands-free, but the data are limited and not adjusted for the number of hand-held or hands-free phones in use.
Some of the largest U.S. corporations bar employees from using cellphones when driving during work hours, making no exception for hands-free calling. DuPont, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and its parent, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, with collectively hundreds of thousands of employees, are among those with cellphone bans.
AMEC, a large engineering concern, also prohibits its 7,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada from using cellphones while driving. "There is no better way to proactively boost safety for a mobile, white-collar workforce," company spokesman John Kageorge said.
But with cellular use exploding -- up to 73% of Americans at least occasionally use cellphones while driving, according to one survey -- what companies can do by fiat may be politically impossible for state legislatures.
Of 95 bills pending in 28 states that relate to cellular use by drivers, none would impose an all-out ban, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Typically, the bills would prohibit talking by teenagers or school bus drivers, or require hands-free devices -- all measures the multibillion-dollar cellphone industry no longer opposes.
Joe Farrin, assistant vice president for public affairs at CTIA-The Wireless Assn., an industry trade group, said: "Generally, our view has been the issue of driver distraction is . . . bigger than one distraction, but at the same time we are not going to oppose a hands-free only bill, we are not going to oppose restrictions on young drivers."
Total prohibition is "off the table," said Matt Sundeen of the conference of state legislatures.
"I think a number of sponsors of the hands-free legislation would tell you . . . that they're interested in prohibiting more than just the hand-held device, but it's just not something that's politically feasible," he said.
Under the law, a first offense will bring a $20 ticket; subsequent violations will cost $50, with no points against a driver's insurance.
A companion law sponsored by Simitian will bar drivers younger than 18 from using any type of cellphone, similar to restrictions in 16 other states.
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myron.levin@latimes.com
