December 21, 2018 at 5:16 p.m.
Citizen: Distracted driving still a problem in city almost five years after cellphone ban
Police chief says education must accompany increased enforcement
Citizen: Distracted driving still a problem in city almost five years after cellphone ban
Skubal brought his concerns to the city's public safety committee Dec. 18. He was invited to speak to the panel after sending the alderpersons a two-page letter outlining his observations. He also said he contacted Rhinelander Police Chief Lloyd Gauthier, mayor Chris Frederickson, city administrator Daniel Guild, alderperson Dawn Rog and Oneida County Sheriff Grady Hartman on this issue.
Before addressing the panel, Skubal passed out a handout. A photo on the first page shows the result of a head-on collision between two cars.
"We've seen these car crashes, talk to some of the state troopers, talk to some of the officers that have been on scene," Skubal said. "Distracted driving is starting to surpass driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in many parts of our country."
Skubal cited a Wisconsin Department of Transportation study that found that there are three distracted driving crashes every hour. He also said studies show that a vehicle traveling 55 m.p.h. will travel the length of a football field in the five seconds it takes someone to read the average text message.
Skubal said he has a tremendous amount of respect for law enforcement officers as his own father was a 35-year veteran of the Rhinelander Police Department, and understands enforcement of the cellphone ban is challenging.
"You all are doing the right thing, in my opinion, but I see it every day," he said. "Every day I see people on their cellphones, I see people distracted driving."
One suggestion Skubal made to the committee was to double the fine for cellphone use in a school zone. He also suggested the city put up more and larger signs reminding drivers of the cellphone ban enacted in 2014.
"The only two signs that I'm aware of is coming off Kemp Street by the bridge and by Shepard Park," Skubal said. "And I'll be honest, I had to search them out. They're small, they have a lot of writing on them and they're hard to see."
He suggested a media blitz including billboards, social media and other methods to better educate the public to the existence of the ordinance.
"Let them know so they are well informed so when they make that decision to distracted drive or use their cellphone, and they get a citation, they can't come back at the city and say well, we didn't know this," Skubal said.
He reminded some of the people in the room about how well received the mandatory seat belt laws were when they were first enacted. Eventually, people stopped complaining when the number of traffic fatalities started dropping, he said.
"It was an ordinance that was not too well accepted," said council president George Kirby said, referring to the cellphone ban.
He said the police chief at the time, Mike Steffes, didn't want his officers to actively enforce the new ordinance.
"It was a cheap ordinance, it was a $10 fine, it was something that was not generating money in the books, it's time-consuming," Kirby said. "I would like to see it enforced. I mean I have seen so many times, as he says, a phone in one hand, a cigarette in the other hand and they're still going through the intersection."
Alderman Tom Kelly agreed with Skubal in that there should be large signs at every entrance to the city touting the ordinance.
"Those signs aren't big enough. If you're going 35 m.p.h. on Lincoln Street and you see a sign the size of a newspaper, it's just not big enough," he said.
Committee chair Steve Sauer said that current signs are required by the ordinance. In the first year after the ban was enacted, people who received the citation could get a hands-free device to use with their phones and have the citation dismissed, he explained.
"It was a $10 ticket, but when you add court costs to it, it ends up being $146," Sauer said. "The whole goal then was to try and change the culture. I don't think it has changed the culture a lot."
City attorney Carrie Miljevich said there is no uniform state law governing the use of handheld devices, so some communities like Rhinelander have enacted their own local ordinances.
"There were a couple other cities that did it and Rhinelander followed suit," Miljevich said, noting that a discussion at a League of Wisconsin Municipalities conference suggested that the lack of a uniform state law may mean that the local ordinances might be susceptible to legal challenge on constitutional grounds, however none has arisen yet.
When Wausau introduced its cellphone ban, it was first floated as something all municipalities would pass and uniformly enforce, Guild noted. When no other metro communities signed on, Wausau went ahead and launched their own ban with initial heavy enforcement, he said.
"They had people (police) sitting on the borders and if you crossed the border and you had a cellphone against your ear, you were getting pulled over," Guild said. "And it just swept through the community, everyone was talking about it. People didn't like it; it was not popular."
He said the aggressive enforcement prompted a lot of people to purchase Bluetooth devices or use applications to make their phones hands-free.
Gauthier said the owner of the digital billboard downtown has offered space to the police department for public education campaigns, and he felt this would be a perfect use of the space.
He said one of his officers did an informal traffic study near Burger King on Lincoln Street for 15 minutes.
A few people were observed actively talking on their phones, two people appeared to be texting or using email and 152 people were not using phones.
He said his officers tell him they tend to see more people violating the cellphone ordinance when they are off duty and in their personal vehicles.
"It's less prevalent when you're driving big billboards that say squad car," Gauthier noted, noting that he recently he stopped a driver for the offense who had no idea the ordinance was in place.
He suggested a strong push to educate residents would be the best way to approach the problem rather than increasing enforcement.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at jamie@rivernews online.com.
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