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Congress Considers Bill Regulating Cell Phone Use While Driving

By Hardwick & Pendergast, P.S. on July 13, 2011

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representative that would set federal standards for using cell phones while driving and may ban their use altogether in many situations, according to a recent article in The Detroit Free Press.

The bill is called the Safe Drivers Act of 2011. Introduced by U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY, it would require the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to create regulations that ban the use of cell phones while driving except in certain emergency and similar situations. The bill does not ban the use of hands-free devices to talk on cell phones while driving, however. If the bill passes, states will have two years to change their laws to meet the DOT standards or will risk losing up to 25 percent of their federal highway funding. Read the rest »