Time to take Cell Phones out of Drivers Hands

When Aaron Wolff came in front of the City Council at the first Council meeting in February he requested for the seemingly 10th time that the City Council hold public hearings on banning cell phone use while driving. He has stated the obvious distraction and safety hazard that this has caused on our roads.

I responded that the time has come for us to take the step and move forward on this issue but was immediately and abruptly interrupted by Mayor Mike Belsky as he successfully cut me off from finishing my thoughts. Again the Mayor, showed disrespect and lack of courtesy toward City Council members and would not allow me to finish my thoughts on this issue.

While driving down Elm Street a few weeks ago a woman driving a huge SUV was chatting away on her phone while driving on the wrong side of the street. She headed straight at me and if I did not pull over into the parking spaces in front of Walgreen's we would have had a head on. Whatever the conversation she was having on that cell phone was too important for her to focus on driving properly.

I applaud our Representative Karen May on moving forward on a state wide ban of hand held cell phone use as Chicago and Winnetka have done. But just because Rep. May is proposing this law does not mean it will happen.

We have been leaders in the past on smoking, environmental, and land use laws prior to other municipalities or the state adopting those changes. The time has come to ban hand held cell phone use in Highland Park and look forward to a good discussion at the City Council.