HAWAII has done nothing to discourage the use of cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, despite studies and documented evidence of the danger. City Councilman Charles Djou is moving to ban text messaging and playing video games while at the wheel on city streets, but he should be wary of encouraging drivers to engage in other reckless conduct.

Djou says he was “;shocked”; to learn that a city bus driver had been caught playing a video game while operating the bus in September. The driver was suspended from his job, but had violated no law.

That is only the tip of a much larger problem caused by use of new technologies. Studies have shown that talking on a cell phone while driving is at least as dangerous as driving drunk—it creates a dangerous mental distraction.

More than 250 million Americans now subscribe to cell phones and one in 10 U.S. drivers use them while navigating in traffic, according to government estimates. A Harvard University study in 2002 estimated yearly cell-phone usage, typically totalling six hours per driver, had been causing 2,600 traffic deaths, 570,000 injuries and 1.5 million instances of property damage.

After studying the issue and finding 955 cell-phone- related traffic fatalities in 2002, federal transportation officials drafted a letter in 2003 for then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to send to governors alerting them to the problem of encouraging the use of hands-free cell-phone usage by taking more limited measures, as chronicled by former Los Angeles Times reporter Myron Levin in the current issue of Mother Jones magazine.

“;Overwhelmingly, research worldwide indicates that both hand-held and hands-free cell phones increase the risk of a crash,”; the letter stated. “;We are convinced that legislation forbidding the use of hand-held cell phones ... will not be effective”; and “;may erroneously imply that hands-free phones are safe to use.”;

The letter never was sent but was disclosed in a lawsuit last year, Levin reported. Jeffrey Runge, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2003, told Levin that the decision not to send the letter was made “;above my pay grade.”; Mineta said he had never seen the letter.

Six states, the District of Columbia and 40 countries, including virtually all of western Europe, now ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, and 28 states and D.C. restrict use by teenagers or new drivers. On Jan. 1, California will become the sixth state, plus D.C., to ban driving while texting. Djou's proposal, if enacted, would hardly put a dent in the problem and could make things worse.