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Senator argues for hands-free cell phones, covered loads Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Taking up causes he has fought for in previous legislative sessions, Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, spoke Monday to a Senate committee about bills he has filed to limit cell phone use by drivers and require truck drivers to keep gravel loads covered. The Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee, of which Hendren is a member, took no action on either bill. Senate Bill 7 would allow use of a cell phone while driving only if the driver is using a hands-free phone device and has both hands on the steering wheel. Exceptions would be made for law enforcement officers, emergency personnel and drivers contacting law enforcement or emergency personnel. A first offense would be punished with a warning. For second and subsequent offenses, a driver could be fined $50. The offense would not be a primary offense, meaning drivers could not be stopped for that offense alone. Hendren showed the committee two hands-free devices that would meet the requirements of the bill: a device with a speaker that can be clipped to a sun visor and a device with an earpiece. Hendren said he knows a Siloam Springs woman whose teen-age child was hit and killed by a driver who was talking on a cell phone. "After this happens to you or to me, then we're going to say, 'My, my, I wish I'd have done it," he said. The senator first proposed legislation requiring the use of a hands-free device in 2001. He withdrew that legislation. A similar measure he filed in 2005 failed in the Senate. Hendren also discussed Senate Bill 8, which would require that a load of gravel or rocks being transported on a public street or highway be covered. Two years ago, a similar bill he proposed failed to get out of committee. A 2001 law requires covers for loads on trucks built after Sept. 30, 2001. A truck built on or before that date can transport an uncovered load if the top of the trailer bed is at least 6 inches above the height of the load, measured at the load's perimeter. Hendren said Monday it is not always possible to tell by sight if a truck was built before or after 2001, so it is hard to tell whether a driver is violating the law. Also, a load of gravel may be below the top of the trailer bed at the perimeter but higher in the middle, he said. Mark Whitmore, general counsel for the Association of Arkansas Counties, said Hendren's bill would be costly for counties, requiring them to retrofit numerous old trucks with load covers. Hendren said he would favor using general improvement funds for outfitting old trucks. Some of the increased funding Gov. Mike Beebe has proposed for counties and cities also could be used for that purpose, he said. Whitmore argued that the bill is unnecessary because failing to secure a load is already a traffic violation. Hendren said most dump trucks do not have rear license plates, so when a rock falls off a truck and breaks another driver's windshield, the victim often cannot give police the truck's tag number. Hendren also said a rock that falls from a truck could lie in the roadway for a while before being thrown up into someone's windshield. "One of the thrusts of this bill is ... to keep litter off the highway to start with," he said. Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, has filed an amendment that would add trucks hauling waste material to the bill. Hendren said he wanted to look at the amendment before presenting the bill for a vote. Hendren said he would present the cell phone bill for a vote Wednesday and the dump truck bill either Wednesday or next week. |
