posted March 14, 2006 11:37 AM              

By Lisa Black
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 14, 2006

If you're reading this article while driving in Winnetka, stop now.

Also, put down the coffee cup, turn off the cell phone and stop twiddling the radio.

"Distracted driving" could be outlawed in the affluent North Shore community under a proposal that could set a precedent in Illinois.

The cell phone has received much of the blame for bad driving recently, but research has shown that other activities--adjusting a radio, eating or talking to a passenger--are more often cited as contributing to a crash.

With that in mind, Winnetka Police Chief Joseph DeLopez has recommended banning a range of driver distractions, including talking on a phone, operating a radio or game, attending to pets, passengers or cargo, grooming, eating or drinking. The Village Council is to discuss the proposal Tuesday.

Trustee Sandra Berger said she thinks it "makes a lot of sense."

"It scares me the way some people are driving. As adults we should be setting the example for our children. ... Fixing their iPods, putting on makeup or eating a sandwich--that's bizarre," she said.

It's not clear how the law would be enforced. Berger said it was her understanding that police would not prowl intersections waiting for commuters to hoist their travel mugs.

"I think the police are saying the only time you'll be ticketed for a distracted use is in the event you're in an accident," she said.

Public safety officials and people calling 911 would be exempt. The law would not pertain to drivers when the car is parked. Violators would face a fine of up to $750.

If adopted, the law would likely be the first of its kind in Illinois, said Matt Sundeen, spokesman with the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. Some Illinois cities, including Chicago, have banned the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, but experts contacted Monday were not aware of any Illinois cities that have enacted a distracted-driving law.

"The broader distractions are a relatively new phenomenon in this whole debate," Sundeen said.

Nationwide, only Connecticut, the District of Columbia and New Hampshire have a distracted- and negligent-driving law on the books, according to the American Automobile Association, based in Washington, D.C.

The laws are too new for researchers to conclude whether they've made driving any safer, Sundeen said.

Winnetka resident Bernadette Wolff, 62, said she would support the law.

She wears reflectors on her shoes to warn motorists of her presence during her 4-mile morning walk, but she knows they're unlikely to be seen by drivers on cell phones who guzzle coffee, read maps or strain to see around a pooch sitting in their laps.

"I want to be sure when I come up to an intersection I have their eye," Wolff said. "I'm very leery of where their attention is."

Winnetka police declined to discuss the proposal before the Village Council meets.

But in his report to the board, Chief DeLopez said he wrote the proposal at the request of the citizens Winnetka Village Caucus, which asked for a cell phone ordinance.

"The issue runs deeper than the use of cell phones," he wrote, adding that the wider ban would focus attention on all the things that distract drivers.

Village President Edmund Woodbury said that in the past, Winnetka police have discouraged a cell phone ban because they were concerned it would not be effective. A 2005 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that hands-free devices did nothing to reduce driver distractions.

Woodbury found the wider proposal provocative but wasn't sure it would fly.

"The feeling is, it's mostly a regional or state problem," Woodbury said. "It's hard for little Winnetka to take this on by itself and be there alone."

If the council is unwilling to approve the distracted-driving law, DeLopez proposed an ordinance that would require drivers to use hands-free devices with cell phones, as Chicago's law does.

This is not the first time the subject has come up in Winnetka.

Irwin Askow, 90, who was a village board president in the 1970s, pushed for a law barring drivers from using cell phones around 2000, when he was almost struck by a car.

"I was crossing the street in Winnetka and was almost run over--missed me by 2 inches--a lady driving an SUV and talking on the cell phone," said Askow, who still supports the law, though he now lives in Evanston. "She didn't even see me. She didn't stop at all."

Wolff said she believes distracted driving is a symptom of a broader societal problem.

"I think we have all become very self-absorbed and self-important," Wolff said.

Perhaps everyone needs a reminder, she said: "This is a big vehicle. Pay attention."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0603140196mar14,1,5656515.st ory?page=2&coll=chi-news-hed

does this mean that i should curb my tendency to post and comunicate with my beloved knowflakes at LL while driving around town running errands? am i really that self-absorbed and self-important?