Nearly two years after driving while holding a cellphone was banned on Oahu, many motorists still have a hard time putting down the device and keeping both hands on the wheel.
Honolulu police have issued tickets at a steady clip of about 1,000 per month in 2010 and the first half of 2011.
In fact, the number of violators has increased with time, as only about 320 drivers were ticketed per month in the first six months of the ban, which took effect on July 1, 2009.
Oahu was the first county in the state to forbid using a hand-held cellphone — as well as other portable electronics — while driving. The other counties followed with similar legislation in the first half of 2010.
Law-violating drivers in the four counties have paid a total of more than $1.6 million in fines, the state attorney general’s office said.
Graham Wilson is among those who have been ticketed for holding his cellphone while steering his car. Despite the sting of Oahu’s $97 fine, he admits he continues to break the law because he does not think his driving is impaired.
"Cellphones aren’t distracting; it’s the number of drivers out there who lack driving skills that’s distracting," said Wilson, 25, a system administrator for Farmers Insurance Hawaii.
That rationale is precisely the problem, says a national expert on distracted driving. Donald L. Fisher, Engineering Department chairman at the University of Massachusetts, said people don’t realize how little it takes to turn a focused driver into a distracted one.
"Our research has found that 20 percent of crashes are due to people glancing away for more than two seconds," Fisher said. "We’ve found that glancing away for more than two seconds presents very dangerous outcomes, and most drivers aren’t aware of the two-second rule."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that nationwide in 2009, 995 traffic deaths out of 33,808 involved reports of a cellphone being a distraction.
Honolulu police have issued 20,654 tickets for the violation — 1,899 in the second half of 2009, 12,548 in 2010 and 6,207 so far this year, the attorney general’s office said.
Here are totals for each county since their bans took effect:
» Oahu (ban in effect since July 2009): 20,654 tickets and $1,439,043 in fines
» Hawaii County (since January 2010): 1,359 tickets and $88,676 in fines
» Kauai County (since May 2010): 930 tickets and $60,720 in fines
» Maui County (since July): 964 tickets and $70,904 in fines
Cathleen Hasegawa, 28, a server at Bonsai Restaurant, said she stopped using her phone while driving after the ban took effect.
"I still see a lot of people using their phones when they’re driving, and when it prohibits them from driving, well, then it’s a problem," Hasegawa said.
Honolulu police periodically target certain areas for cellphone-driving enforcement. On Saturday, during a three-hour period, officers issued 109 tickets at intersections in Pearl City and Kalihi.
"Law enforcement is a continuous process, and our goal is through continued enforcement efforts, awareness and conformance in the community will increase," police Capt. Andrew Lum said.
Winson Yu, manager of Upnext Wireless on Pensacola Street, said that there has been a drop in sales for hands-free devices — which may be legally used while driving — for cellphones.
"When the ban first took effect, there was such a high demand for the Bluetooth headsets, but now the demand has died out," Yu said.
John Ulczycki, group vice president for the National Safety Council, said drivers understand the potential dangers but might ignore the risks when they do use their phones and nothing bad happens.
"Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a car crash to wake them up," Ulczycki said.
