Five years ago, Nancy Waller bought a car phone as a safety net in case she became trapped in a blizzard.
Today, the president and owner of Premier Casino Events in Springdale uses her cellular phone on interstates and back roads near her West Chester home, mostly for checking office messages and planning events for clients such as Procter & Gamble Co. and Alliant FoodService Inc. in West Chester.
"I have to say, the phone has frequently caused me to miss exits," she said. "I'll be talking, and I'll just blow right by it."
That's what concerns law enforcement officials in Cincinnati and nationwide. In their minds, cellular phones are just one more form of inattention - like tuning a radio, eating or scolding a child in a backseat - that take drivers' eyes and attention off the road.
It's a problem that is multiplying: The number of cellular phone users increases at a rate of about 10 million a year, said Tim Ayers of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association in New York. By the end of July, there are expected to be about 50 million users.
Just last week, Butler County saw its first fatal highway accident directly linked to cellular phone use.
Sharon Fultz, of Morgan Township, died after she rolled through a stop sign and slammed into a fully loaded beer truck that carried her car 190 feet before bursting into flames.
Ms. Fultz, 38, had been talking on her cellular car phone to her fiance, whom she was to marry this month.
"All of a sudden, phones are becoming as common as cigarette lighters," said Kentucky State Police Trooper Jan Wuchner, of Post 6 in Dry Ridge. "I've even pulled people over in the middle of intersections and they had to stop their (phone) conversation in order to greet me, the police officer."
The Ohio State Highway Patrol does not keep statistics on how many traffic accidents involve inattentive cellular phone users, although Sgt. Brenda Collins of the patrol said she thinks the number is small. Cellular phone use is no more dangerous than any other form of distraction, she said.
"It's because a person is not paying attention that the accident occurs," she said. "The cellular phone isn't the cause; it didn't jump into the driver's hands."
But Butler County Chief Deputy Rick Jones said Tuesday's fatal accident is not the first time cellular phone users have caused havoc in Butler County.
In the last 18 months, about 20 accidents in the county have involved cellular phone use, he said.
"Not a week goes by that I don't have someone come up to me at a festival or at the scene of an accident and complain to me about someone using a cellular phone," Trooper Wuchner said.
A study earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine seems to confirm their concerns. The study, based on 699 people who had used a wireless cellular phone near the time of an accident, concluded cellular phone use while driving quadruples the risk of an accident.
It also found that the real hazard of car phone use may not be in the manipulation of the phone, but in the conversation.
"People like to demonize the cellular phone," said Stephanie Faul, communications director for the AAA Foundation in Washington. "But it's the only distraction that has a significant compensatory safety benefit . . . cell phone callers can save lives."
Wisconsin has made some of the greatest strides among states studying the effects of cellular phone use on highway safety, an effort prompted by a 1996 fatal accident near Janesville. Two people were killed when their vehicle was hit by a driver talking on a cellular phone and reading blueprints.
Since then, Wisconsin, the wireless telephone industry and AAA Foundation have begun an educational campaign to get drivers to keep their minds on the road.
The state recently issued a report that found fatigue, not cellular phone use, is the No. 1 cause of driver inattention. And driver inattention appears to be on the rise: the number of citations for inattentive driving in Wisconsin has increased 7 percent to 15 percent in three years, said David Manning, director of Highway Safety for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
"We have virtually no evidence as far as crash data that says cellular phones are a major cause of accidents," Mr. Manning said. "On the contrary, we have lots of data showing that impaired drivers and speeders have been removed from the highways because of drivers calling in their behavior."
Butler County police say they may use Tuesday's accident to start their own public awareness program on the dangers of cellular phone use while driving.
Deputy Jones said officers may take Ms. Fultz's car - little more than a burnt chunk of metal - around to various communities, showing people the importance of keeping their minds on the road. "No one can convince me that talking on a cellular phone and driving a car is a safe thing to do," he said.
Previous story
CELLPHONE TIED TO DEATH July 2, 1997
