Kara Grunewald enjoyed talking on her cell phone; she also enjoyed driving. The combination caused her death in 2001.

“When the phone went dead, she was dead,” said her mother, Kim Grunewald. She was talking to her daughter on the phone when a semitrailer hit her car.

Kara, then 20 years old and living in DeKalb, was killed when a semitrailer hit her car after she stopped at the intersection at Peace Road and Fairview Drive.

Today, Kim Grunewald is pushing for state legislation that would make it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving.

Her recent attempt is co-sponsored by Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley). The bill that will be presented would prohibit drivers with one year or less of driving experience from using cell phones while driving. House Bill 5020 was tabled by its author, Rep. John Millner (R-Batavia) on Thursday. Pritchard said Millner will rewrite the bill over the summer and talk with cell phone company representatives. The companies are the biggest opponents of the bill.

Drivers who are stopped for a different violation also are subject to an additional fine of up to $79 for using a cell phone, Pritchard said.

Grunewald said she wants to ban all drivers from using cell phones while driving because she said it causes a “tunnel vision effect” when one has a two-way conversation on a cell phone. Peripheral vision goes away when one has a sustained conversation, she said.

She said she thinks this led to her daughter not seeing the semitrailer.

Grunewald said her daughter had just started to say something when she heard a noise she couldn’t identify over the phone.

The noise she heard over the phone was a part of the car striking the back of Kara’s head. Grunewald said it is important to realize the danger of talking on a cell phone while driving.

Tim Holt, a driver’s education instructor at DeKalb High School, said young drivers already have enough to keep them occupied when they are learning how to drive.

Holt said adults are just as susceptible as younger drivers to distractions from cell phone conversations. Young drivers already have a restriction for the first six months of driving that prohibits them from having more than one person in the car.

“Kara wasn’t distracted,” Grunewald said. “She saw the stop sign. She just didn’t see the semi.”