That time of the year again: Cell phone restrictions on the agenda

With the Iowa legislature in session for only a week, new bills creating restrictions on cell phone use while driving are in the transportation committee in both the House and the Senate.

Two bills, House File 2020, and Senate File 190, both aim to restrict the use of cell phones unless they are used in conjunction with hands-free devices.

Gov. Chet Culver, during a taping of Iowa Press today in Johnston, said he believes legislators will be able to compromise and get a bill on his desk restricting use of cell phones. Culver also said he would sign the bill into law, but doesn’t support a full-on ban on cell phones use while driving.

Only one of the bills, SF 190 authored by Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, explicitly excludes FCC-licensed amateur radio operators:

1 14 c. This subsection does not apply to the use of an amateur
1 15 radio by a federally licensed amateur radio operator.

HF 2020, co-authored by Reps. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, and Curt Hanson, D-Fairfield, does not explicitly mention amateur radio, but instead mentions “cellular telephones,” “wireless handset” and “text messaging” instead of a broader restriction on all two-way half- and full-duplex radio devices.

Last fall, the National Safety Council declared that there are no “significant crash risks” while operating mobile radios.

“We also have no evidence that using two-way radios while driving poses significant crash risks. Until such time as compelling, peer-reviewed scientific research is presented that denotes significant risks associated with the use of Amateur Radios, two-way radios or other communication devices, the NSC does not support legislative bans or prohibition on their use,” NSC President Janet Froetscher said in a letter to the American Radio Relay League.