States tackle high-tech driver distraction

WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Legislators in states including Texas, New York and Arizona are considering bills that would outlaw driving while using video games, computers and fax machines.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said states are following a series of driver distraction measures with bills that address the use of more advanced electronics behind the wheel, USA Today reported Thursday.

"I got in a cab and the cabdriver was watching the fights on a TV he had in the front seat," said New York state Sen. Carl Marcellino, R-Syosset, who proposed a bill to ban use of display-generating electronics by drivers that passed unanimously June 21 in the state Senate. "Cars are becoming an extension of the workplace and an extension of the home."

The fines for the bills in the different states range from $50 to $600.

"I know people who honest to God have fax and e-mail in their car," said Illinois state Rep. William Black, R-Danville, who proposed a bill that would create a task force to study the effects of mobile high-tech appliances on drivers.