NEW YORK New York City officials on Tuesday proposed a ban on the use of handheld cellular phones while driving, a move that would put the city at the forefront of a movement nationwide to restrict usage of the popular devices.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and members of the City Council introduced two similar bills that, if passed, would require motorists to use hands-free devices attached to their cellular phones while driving in the city.

"It doesn't attempt to stop the use of cellphones," said City Council Speaker Peter Vallone. "It does say we don't want you to hold the phone in your hand.

"The whole point is to make it safer for the driver and obviously safer for the pedestrian," he said. "It's a matter of common sense."

The mayor's office cited a recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found at least one contributing factor in about 65 percent of all motor vehicle accidents was driver inattentiveness and another study by the University of Toronto that showed a driver's use of a cellphone can quadruple the risk of an accident.

Both bills will go before the City Council for discussion in the next several weeks, officials said.

Fines for violating the law would probably begin at about $100 or $150 for a first offense, Vallone said.

Exemptions would be made for emergency calls and while a vehicle is stopped or parked.

A similar law in New York's Suffolk County, on suburban Long Island, takes effect on Jan. 1, making it the first county in the nation to ban handheld cellphone use while driving.

A few small municipalities across the country have enacted similar bills, while like legislation is under consideration in a number of other cities and counties nationwide.

A few statewide bans have been proposed as well, including a limited measure in Virginia and one in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile a study published on Tuesday said there does not appear to be an association between handheld cellular telephone use and brain cancer, though more research needs to be done about the impact of long-term use.

The study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association and done by the American Health Foundation, was funded in part by a research group established by the cellular telephone industry which put more than $28 million into a blind escrow account for the group to finance research.

(Reuter)