Taking a harder line on driving distracted?

Suffolk County began listening to the National Transportation Safety Board before the board started listening to itself.

More than a decade ago, the county became the nation's first municipality to ban driving while talking on a cellphone while holding it.

The measure cited a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that blamed cellphone use for increasing the risk of crashes resulting in injury, property damage, lost work hours and death.

The politically viable solution, in 2000, was to force motorists into using hands-free devices, which, in theory, let drivers talk while keeping both hands on the wheel.

Even then, however, Jon Cooper, a freshman county legislator who sponsored the measure, acknowledged that the safest way to go would be banning cellphone use. Period.

"But in the state of New York, that's not tenable, not practicable," Cooper said in an interview at the time. "Politically, that wouldn't pass, so you have to compromise and take the first steps."

Ultimately, New York State followed Suffolk's first footsteps. And, as years passed and the sophistication and reach of handheld devices exploded, New York State -- along with more than 30 others -- banned texting while driving, too.

On Tuesday, the NTSB recommended that states get even tougher by banning drivers from using cellphones and other portable electronic devices, except in emergencies.

The recommendation, unanimously approved by the five-member panel, applied to hands-free and handheld devices -- a change that would be stronger than any existing cellphone-use law.

The board has no power to enforce its recommendation, but, observers say, the suggestion could affect state and federal thinking on the issue.

As it is, drivers appear to be flouting the current state law. It is not unusual to see motorists holding cellphones to their ears.

Or lingering too long after a traffic light has turned green as they check or write email. Or resetting the GPS, solving the last 7 Little Words clue or checking out a video.

Police say it can be easy to see who is driving while distracted because their heads are usually looking down for an extended period of time, rather than up and out at the road.

In Nassau and Suffolk, from time to time, departments go on the lookout for distracted drivers. Statewide, 816 citations were issued over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend to motorists texting while driving; 330 of them were part of a special crackdown.

It's a shame that what should be common sense could end up in stronger laws or, better, stronger penalties -- even as technology evolves, again, in vehicles that allow drivers to use consoles, rather than a single device, to communicate.

Cooper did not learn of the NTSB recommendation until I called him Tuesday.

"It's an affirmation," he said in an interview, "a decade after the fact."

I quickly emailed Cooper a copy of a story on the recommendation. Sometime later, as I was driving and telling my son about the NTSB vote, a cellphone signaled Cooper's reply.

"Are you kidding me?!" my son demanded -- angrily, incredulously -- after I, as is my habit, reached to check (one of two) phones resting on the dashboard.

Not to worry, son.

Today, I swear, those phones will be buzzing -- from the backseat.