My regular reader (Hi, Jeff!) will recall my oft mentioning that for the last couple of years of my time on active duty at the Air Force Academy I served part time as a military cop. My first wife had passed away, and police work had always fascinated me. So I got trained up as an AF cop and taught during the week and patrolled nights and weekends.

One of the interesting trainings I got to take was from the State Patrol on recognizing and testing possible drunk drivers. I got certified in “horizontal gaze nystagmus” testing, which is a fancy way of saying waving your finger in front of a suspect’s eyes and watching how the eye moves. It’s remarkably accurate in detecting alcohol and drugs.

An additional thing I learned was that, as of my training in 2006, there were 22 “tells” a cop can observe that might indicate impaired driving by someone drunk or high. If we observed six “tells” we had probable cause to turn on the flashing lights and pull the person over for additional testing.

And one really interesting thing about the “tells” is that use of a cell phone mimics roughly 18 of those same indicators. Things like failure to maintain lane position, following too closely and variations in maintained speed all work for booze but also for cell phones. Simply put, if I as a cop am observing a suspected DK, as we called drunk drivers for some reason, it might just be someone texting their spouse or calling for a pizza for pick up on the way home.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

Even today, fully 18 years after I retired from the Air Force, my mind is still in cop mode when I’m driving, and I can’t help but notice “tells” in other drivers, and when passed, I often see them chatting away on their phones.

I thought about those trainings and experiences when I read the Colorado Politics story on a bill currently in the state legislature I truly hope will become law. Things are looking good, in that the bill passed in committee unanimously, which is great.

The bill, Senate Bill 65, seeks to unify, strengthen and coordinate the various laws previously passed regarding cell phone use. Simply put, the new law would require adults use hands-free devices to chat or face new and harsher penalties. Currently, state law only requires those 18 and younger to use hands-free devices. It’s high time everyone driving be required to go hands-free. If you are still using your ancient flip phone it might be time for an upgrade. And of course, if you are parked you can use your phone the regular way.

The first time you get cited under the proposed law would result in a $75 fine, which escalates from there. But the human cost of, frankly, impaired driving, is all too often not a story of a fine, but rather the horrific results of dialing or texting while driving. The CoPo article tells a couple of different stories about people horribly hurt and even killed when a vehicle smashed into them in bike lanes or when stopped in traffic, by drivers on their phones at the time of the accident.

Interesting fact: If you have driven on Interstate 25 just north of Colorado Springs, between mile markers 156 and 150, you may well have not noticed the little signs that state you are actually on the grounds of the Air Force Academy. Yup, there are six miles of that highway on federal property, and we as military first responders were the, well, first responders for accidents in that stretch of the road. I can’t tell you how many people were quite surprised to see a military cop car pull up behind them and for a lieutenant colonel cop (little old me) to get out and walk up to their window. Mostly they were glad to see that help had arrived. I responded to dozens of accidents on I-25, and since I was responding to an existing accident, I did not, of course, know if cell phone use was the cause in any particular case.

But I have my suspicions.

In quite a few cases, the mishap was the result of following too closely or failing to stop when the vehicle in front of the person stopped. Now if it is dark, or especially if the roads are slick and the person was driving too fast, that’s one thing. But to rear-end another car on a bright sunny day makes me suspicious of probably phone use. I remember one fellow, driving his two-day-old Camaro, smacking into the back of a construction truck, and the latter’s tow ball was embedded 18 inches into the Camero’s hood. The driver was sober, and I suspect he was texting or dialing his phone when he looked down, “only for a moment,” before ruining his car, to say nothing of endangering himself and others. I’m sure it was just “a quick call,” sigh…

Count me as a strong supporter of Senate Bill 65, and my thanks to the legislators involved. Cell phones are amazing technology and are incredibly useful, but not when they represent a direct threat to you or someone else.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.