By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Have you ever noticed someone driving erratically only to find out the cause of their bad driving is a cell phone attached to their ear?

Apparently, a number of local residents are fed up with such behavior and would like to see state legislators do something about it.

Last week, L’Observateur asked visitors to its Web site which piece of legislation they would like to see passed during the current session.

Nearly 40 percent chose legislation that would ban the use of cell phones without hands-free devices while driving.

School board reforms were another popular choice, garnering over one-quarter of the votes.

Surprisingly, a ban on smoking in bars and casinos failed to get even 15 percent of the votes.

All of the aforementioned pieces of legislation have gone up for vote in previous sessions and failed.

One-fifth of voters felt the legislators time could be better spent concentrating on other matters.

A full breakdown of results follows:

• 39 percent of respondents chose “a ban on using cell phones without hands-free devices while driving.”

• 27 percent of respondents chose “school board reforms.”

• 14 percent of respondents chose “a ban on smoking in bars and casinos.”

• 20 percent of respondents chose “none of the above.”