No cell phone usage for teens as they drive

There's an article in the San Jose Mercury news that's titled "California lawmakers tell teen drivers to get off their cell phone." The article talks about a new bill in the works that would ban teen drivers from using their cell phones while they are driving. Staring July 2008, all drivers are required to use hands free devices while they are driving. In Reading the fact sheet of Senate Bill 33: Teen Driver Cell Phone safety, The California Highway Patrol reports that "cell phone use is the number one source of distracted-driver related accidents in the state" which makes sense that a law needed to be created to stop such accidents. The fact sheet also points out that "teen drivers are four times more distracted than adult drivers by cell phone use," which explains why sixteen-year-olds have a crash rate at almost ten times more than drivers of ages between thirty and fifty nine (National Highway traffic Safety Administration, 2001). The fines that violators will get is twenty dollars the first time and fifty dollars every time after that and the offense would not count against the offenders driving record.
Overall this bill makes sense because it will allow the teenagers to pay attention to the road and not their cell phones. It's bad enough holding your cell phone as you drive but there's people that are actually texting as they drive, how crazy is that. The fines should be a little steeper than what they are being set at. The fines should not stay at fifty dollars after the first time but keep increasing to make the offender understand that it's going to get really expensive to keep violating the law.
It's a good thing I read this article because I was under the impression that the new law was going to start this coming July and was in the process of looking for a hands free device. Now I have a little bit more time to purchase a hands free device but for my own safety and the safety of others I should not procrastinate in the purchase of a hands free device.