HARRISBURG -- Trying to legislate people's behavior is always controversial, says a state legislator from Monroeville, but the effort is worthwhile if it keeps more teenage drivers alive.

Democratic Rep. Joe Markosek and the House Transportation Committee, which he chairs, gave unanimous approval yesterday to his bill that would impose some serious new restrictions on teens with learner's permits and junior drivers 16 and 17 years old.

House Bill 2674 would prohibit such young drivers from talking on handheld cell phones while operating their vehicles, sending text messages while driving or having more than one non-family passenger in their cars at a time.

The bill has been discussed in one form or another for more than two years.

As now worded, it would prohibit teens with learner's permits and 16- and 17-year-olds with junior licenses from operating "interactive wireless communications devices" while they are behind the wheel. Such prohibited devices would include Blackberrys or similar personal digital assistants, along with laptop computers, handheld cell phones and text-messaging devices.

There is an exception, however, allowing teen drivers to use cell phones to call 911 to report accidents or other emergencies. The penalty for violating the law on cell phone use or texting would be a $100 fine.

The bill would also prohibit junior drivers from driving a vehicle "with more than one passenger under 18 years of age." The idea is to reduce distractions that can result when several passengers are talking or joking with the driver, which could lead to an accident.

There's a loophole in the passenger limitation. With parental permission, a junior driver could drive with more than one passenger younger than 18 if they were "siblings or relatives who live in the same dwelling as the junior driver."

At the urging of Rep. John Sabatina, D-Philadelphia, legislators called the measure "Lacey's Law," in honor of Lacey Gallagher, a Philadelphia high school senior who died 18 months ago in a car accident. She was one of several teens in a car driven by a teenage friend, and the distractions of the girls chatting may have been a factor in the fatal accident.

The bill also would require additional hours of driver's training before a teen could get a junior license -- 65 hours instead of the current 50, and at least 10 of those hours would have to be driving at nighttime and five would have to be during inclement weather.

"It's always controversial when you try to change someone's behavior," Mr. Markosek said. "It's similar to the newly enacted law that bans smoking in most public places. That took years to get approved. But with teen drivers, driving safety is important. I'd like to see how the Legislature and the public feels about this issue."

The Markosek bill has a long way to go, and probably won't get final action before the session ends Nov. 30. But he is hoping for preliminary approval by the House this year, which could speed re-consideration and full adoption of the bill in the next session, starting in January.

So far, the proposed prohibitions only apply to young drivers. But older drivers should pay attention, because legislators say there might be an effort on the House floor to ban drivers of any age from texting or using handheld cell phones while driving. Advocates say it's important to increase safety for all drivers by reducing distractions.