Read more and listen to the March 1, 2010 Radio Smart Talk on young drivers.

“Not making sense” is what I’m hearing from many people today when it comes to not having a law that addresses texting or talking on a cell phone while driving. One would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think the distractions of texting or talking on a cell phone isn’t a crash waiting to happen. It also is probably one of the few issues where the public is clamoring for a law to prevent more accidents, injuries and deaths.

Thirty other states now have texting and cell phone laws, but we can’t get it done in Pennsylvania. Why? And why does it seem that Pennsylvania’s legislature is always a follower rather than a leader when it comes to taking action on issues that impact people’s lives, and in this case, protects them?

House Bill 67 also would have limited teen drivers to only one non-family passenger younger than 18 in their car. The Senate amended the proposal to allow up to three under 18 non-family passengers if the driver didn’t cause an accident in their first six months with a driver’s license.

The House bill would increase the number of supervised hours from 50 to 65 that a young driver must spend behind the wheel before they could get their license. The Senate removed that requirement.

Several House members have accused the Senate of weakening a bill that was designed to prevent crashes and save lives. Senators from both parties who supported the changes to the House bill, and especially making violations a secondary offense rather than a primary one, say it would be too difficult for police officers to positively identify drivers as teenagers. They also point out that violation of Pennsylvania’s mandatory seat belt law is a secondary offense and seat belt usage is way up compared to when the law was enacted 20 years ago.

Senators who agreed to the amendments say education is the key.

The difference between the seat belt law and what’s proposed for cell phones is young, inexperienced drivers are most likely to be texting or not paying attention to the road when they have passengers in the car. Even if parents forbid their son or daughter from using the cell phone or texting, the freedom of driving a car with music blaring and friends laughing and talking all at once can lead to an atmosphere where a teenager believes they can do it all. They tell themselves, “I multi-task like this all the time at home or at school – texting while I’m listening to the mom and dad or the teacher. I don’t miss anything. What’s the big deal?”

Of course, missing something a parent said doesn’t usually lead to a life-threatening crash.

In Pennsylvania, lawmakers will try to iron out their differences on the texting bill in a conference committee. The General Assembly is not scheduled to return from their summer recess until September.

There is another bill that was approved in the House that would ban texting and talking on a cell phone while driving for drivers of all ages.

In the meantime, there may be more crashes caused by inattentive drivers and leaves one saying, “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”