New cell phone law hits Oct. 1

By Pat Caldwell
The Enterprise
VALE — No one needs to tell Oregon State Police Lt. Mark Duncan how dangerous it is to use a cell phone on the road.
Duncan, the commander of the Oregon State Police station in Ontario, said he’s seen numerous serious and deadly crashes because of distracted driving and cell phone use. And the number of incidents involving distracted driving continues to climb.
“It is alarmingly high even locally,” Duncan said. “Our number of fatality crashes has increased and I have investigated several that were from distracted driving.”
One case still stands out with Duncan. In October 2013 a car driven by a Parma man slammed into the back of a farm truck.
The Parma man and his wife died in the crash and their young daughter injured.
Duncan said the accident was caused by cell phone use.
“I pulled the phone out . . .