OAK PARK, Ill. -- A desire to crack down on distracted drivers could mean less dashboard dining for a community outside Chicago. Oak Park, Ill., trustee Colette Lueck told the village board that she wants to ban eating, drinking, applying makeup and talking on the phone while behind the wheel, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Lueck called the proposed ban "an issue of public safety." She said it isn't government overreach, that the government is protecting people.
If passed, Oak Park would join a number of communities in the Chicago area that have enacted distracted driving ordinances, said the report. Texting while driving is already illegal in the state of Illinois.
Oak Park communications director David Powers said, however, that there is no actual piece of legislation yet on the issue. He told CSP Daily News, "This grew from a single comment of one trustee during a discussion of public safety. The village board may take up a discussion of distracted driving in the months ahead."
And Oak Park trustee Adam Salzman told WLS-AM, "It just came up within the larger context of a discussion of why we don't have a ban on distracted driving." He was skeptical that an eating-while-driving ban would pass. "We have quite a few drive-throughs in town," he said.
Lueck raised the concept at a meeting that focused on public safety after Police Chief Rick Tanksley said distracted driving was an issue. Board members briefly discussed bans on texting and cell phone use--officials had considered it earlier but never brought it to the board--when Lueck took it a step further and said texting shouldn't be the only ticket-worthy activity.
Other trustees agreed that the village should look at an ordinance that goes beyond texting, but board members said specific discussions on the issue won't occur until early next year.
Research suggests that distracted drivers are involved in 80% of collisions or near-crashes, and governments big and small increasingly are addressing the concern by restricting cell phone use and other negligent conduct behind the wheel, said the Tribune.
Oak Park is the latest community to target the issue, joining a handful of other Chicago-area communities that have looked at prohibiting a variety of driving distractions--from tending to pets and eating to cell phone use.
The issue of distracted driving, especially what constitutes a distraction, continues to gain momentum nationally. In the past two years, for example, the number of states that ban texting while driving has more than tripled, to 34, including Illinois; 10 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed hand-held cell phone use while driving.
A number of communities in the Chicago area, including Antioch, Barrington, Evanston, Highland Park and Kenilworth, have distracted driving ordinances, most mandating hands-free cell phone devices while driving. At least one, Highland Park, allows police to cite a motorist for inattentive driving--it can include operating hand-held computers, reading, grooming or eating--if that driver is pulled over for another violation, said the report.
In 2006, Winnetka Police Chief Joseph DeLopez proposed a sweeping ordinance that would have banned the operation of a radio or game, tending to pets, grooming, and eating or drinking, along with talking on a phone. That proposal never passed, but in 2007 Winnetka banned using hand-held phones while driving.
If Oak Park enacts an outright ban on eating while driving, it might become one of the first in the nation to do so, the report said.
The problem with outlawing driving distractions beyond cell phone use is determining which activities relate directly to vehicle crashes, Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety told the newspaper.
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