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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR A Lujan

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/22/07

2/1/07 HB 241

SHORT TITLE Prohibit Communication Devices While Driving

SB

ANALYST Wilson

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

Unknown Unknown

Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

FY09

$990.0

$1.1 Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Office of the Attorney General (OAG)

Public Defender Department (PDD)

Taxation & Revenue Department (TRD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 241 prohibits operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile communication device.

A mobile communication device is defined as a cellular phone or other device that enables a

person to transmit and receive signals from a person or device.

House Bill 241 – Page

2

The bill creates several exceptions when a person may use a mobile communication device while

operating a motor vehicle. These are:

•

To contact a public safety entity,

•

For legitimate use by operators of commercial motor vehicles to maintain communication

in the performance of job duties,

•

While the vehicle is parked, and

•

During an emergency.

The bill defines emergency as:

A situation in which a person has reason to fear for their life or safety or believes that a

criminal act may be perpetrated against the vehicle operator or another person in the car

and must use the mobile communication device while the car is moving or a situation

when a driver reports a fire, traffic accident with apparent injuries, serious road hazard,

medical or hazardous materials emergency, or a person who is driving recklessly,

carelessly or an unsafe manner.

Violation of this law will result in a $30 penalty assessment misdemeanor.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

TRD has provided the revenue estimates as follows:

Revenues resulting from the proposed measure will depend, among other things, on the

degree of enforcement, whether the proposed law changes driver behavior and the

fraction of the New Mexico population that owns cell phones. The City of Santa Fe

reports issuing 1,648 citations in 2004, 2,115 in 2005, and 1,385 citations in 2006. They

indicate that a shortage of manpower may be responsible for the recent drop in citations.

In any case, convictions for illegal cell phone use have averaged approximately 1,500

annually in recent years. The state’s 1.95 million population currently totals roughly 25

times the City of Santa Fe’s 80,000. This suggests a total of about 37,500 convictions

annually in the State of New Mexico. At $30 per citation, revenues will total roughly

$1,100,000 annually.

There will be a minimal administrative cost for statewide update, distribution and documentation

of statutory changes. New laws, amendments to existing laws and new hearings have the

potential to increase caseloads in the courts, thus requiring additional resources to handle the

increase.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The OAG notes that given the extremely broad definition of mobile communications device, the

bill could prohibit the use of cellular telephones, two-way radios, ham radios, GMRS, FRS,

citizens band radios, business radios, GPS systems and laptop computers while operating a motor

vehicle on New Mexico roads and highways since all of the above listed devices transmit and

receive “signals" from another person or device.

House Bill 241 – Page

3

It is uncertain that the state can prohibit the operation of federally licensed radio stations while

the operator is mobile.

The bill does not define use with respect to the operation of a mobile communications device

while driving. It is unclear whether it is intended to prohibit the operation of such devices in

receive mode (i.e. merely having the device on while driving), or whether it is intended to

prohibit transmitting while driving, or both.

The OAG further notes that NMSA Section 66-8-114 currently requires that any person

operating a motor vehicle on the highway give his full time and entire attention to the operation

of the vehicle. Operating a vehicle in an inattentive manner is considered to be careless driving

under that section.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

Administrative impacts on TRD as a result of the provisions in this bill will be relatively modest.

However, signs indicating that New Mexico prohibits cell phone use while driving will probably

need to be posted by the New Mexico Transportation Department, and considerable driver

education costs will probably be borne by New Mexico agencies.

TECHNICAL ISSUES:

TRD raised the following issues:

.

The proposal does not mention whether use of hands-free (ear piece or voice activated)

devices will be allowed while driving. As written, the bill does not allow use of hands-

free devices while driving, as is the case with the Santa Fe ordinance.

.

On page 1- line 23, legitimate is not defined, hence enforcement will be based on

subjective interpretation, especially when “legitimate" is referring to the performance of

job duties.

.

On page1 – line 24, commercial motor vehicles should be clarified. Several combinations

of vehicles and what they tow and how they are used that determines if it is a commercial

vehicle under New Mexico law.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

TRD provided the following information from the Insurance Information Institute web site:

• The number of state legislatures debating measures that address the problem of cell-

phone use while driving and other driver distractions continues to rise. According to the National

Conference of State Legislatures, as of November 2006 14 states had passed laws banning or

restricting young drivers from using cell phones.

• In December 2005 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and

the National Center for Statistics and Analysis released the results of their National Occupant

Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), which found that in 2005, 6 percent of drivers used hand-held

cell phones, up from 5 percent in 2004. The survey also found that the jump was most noticeable

House Bill 241 – Page

4

among women (up to 8 percent from 6 percent in 2004) and young drivers ages 16 to 24 (up to

10 percent from 8 percent in 2004). The percentage of men using cell phones rose from 4 to 5

percent over the same period. Finally, the survey found that the number of drivers using headsets

rose from 0.4 percent in 2004 to 0.8 percent in 2005. The NOPUS is a probability-based

observational survey. Data on driver cell-phone use were collected at random stop signs or

stoplights only while vehicles were stopped and only during daylight hours.

• 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 conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the 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.

DW/mt:csd