Attempting to obey the new law in Suffolk County, William Vasquez pulled off the road to make a call and was struck and killed by delivery truck.

Killer Law

William Vasquez is dead.

In attempting to obey the new law in Suffolk County, New York, which prohibits cell phone use while driving, William Vasquez pulled off the road to make a call. He was struck and killed by the driver of a Newsday delivery truck, who apparently had been driving for more than nine hours. The police attributed the accident to driver inattention.

William Vasquez is dead, for what one cop described as "trying to do the right thing," and for what the commander of Suffolk County’s Highway Patrol Bureau said had been feared all along as result of the law. The state police report an increasing number of drivers pulling off the road to make or take calls; drivers are reporting numerous near misses. Pulling off highways, except in emergencies, is also against the law.

Will more drivers be killed or injured as a result of the law than would have been without it? No one knows yet, but that won’t matter to William Vasquez. It also won’t matter much to the driver of the Newsday delivery truck, who suffered only minor injuries and is not expected to be charged with anything.

It is also unlikely to matter much to U.S. Representative Gary Ackerman (D. — N.Y.) and U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (D- N.J.), who have introduced bills in the House and Senate that would prohibit cell phone use while driving nationwide. And if the states don’t enforce, well, they’ll put their federal highway funds at risk.

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