It wasn’t enough to ignore science and push through the idiotic idea that talking on cell phones is somehow contributing to reckless driving. He’s back with another bill to raise the fines that someone would incur if they were ticketed for this offense. From the Courant,

“Many constituents reached out to me and complained that the law is not being enforced and I know that they’re absolutely right. They’re absolutely right,” said Rep. Thomas J. Drew, R-Fairfield. “It’s a safety issue.”

The fine would jump from $100 to $250 under a bill that was raised Wednesday and will have a public hearing before the Transportation Committee on Jan. 24.

The ban took effect Oct. 1, 2005. Drivers who are at least 18 can use cell phones, but only with handsfree devices such as headsets. The law bans cell phone use by drivers under 18.

Under current law, police can write $100 tickets for violations. Motorists can avoid the fines by buying handsfree equipment within 30 days and showing the receipt to state prosecutors. Subsequent offenses also result in $100 fines.

The law prevents drivers from using other handheld electronics, such as Palm Pilots, iPods and BlackBerries.

The scientific studies, the ones that measure things like costs associated with regulations, like this one, or this one:

A study released in April 2006 found that almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds of the event. The study, The 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), breaks new ground. (Earlier research found that driver inattention was responsible for 25 to 30 percent of crashes.)

The new study found that the most common distraction is the use of cell phones, followed by drowsiness. However, cell-phone use is far less likely to be the cause of a crash or near-miss than other distractions, according to the study. For example, while reaching for a moving object such as a falling cup increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 9 times, talking or listening on a hand-held cell phone only increased the risk by 1.3 times. The study tracked the behavior of the 241 drivers of 100 vehicles for more than one year. The drivers were involved in 82 crashes, 761 near crashes and 8,295 critical incidents.

What these studies show is that distracted reckless driving can occur from many events, and that the real issue here, is reckless driving. If the reckless driving laws that are already on the books were actually enforced, accidents would likely go down. As it is, drivers fail to yield to school buses, pedestrian walkways, stop signs, red lights in addition to swerving from lane to lane, driving too closely and cutting into lanes. If lawmakers really wanted to have an impact, they would propose legislation that would require anyone receiving a ticket (regardless of disposition) for an accident or moving vehicle violation to attend a six week driving course. Faced with having to go to driving school, or driving more defensively is much more meaningful than a fine. And it would be tied to actual reckless driving incidents, instead of preemptively focusing on a narrow behavior. Until then, there’s always this: www.platewire.com.