This week, New Jersey became the second state in the nation to legislate against the use of cell phones by anyone driving a car.

The law signed Tuesday by Gov. James E. McGreevey sets fines as high as $250 for motorists using a hand-held cell phone while driving. It carries no points, and it doesn't apply if you must make a call for safety reasons. Also, it's a secondary violation - that is, police must pull you over for something else before citing you for talking on the phone.

Legislators hailed it as an important road safety measure.

"There has been a wealth of study … that shows that it is a serious driver distraction," said McGreevey's spokesman, Micah Rasmussen. "I don't think there is a driver on the road who has not been frustrated by someone who is paying more attention to a conversation they're having on the phone than they are to how much they're infringing on your lane of traffic."

Maybe. But critics say the hype doesn't match the law's substance, and that it amounts to misguided legislation that has a high profile but a low probability of making the roads safer.

Steve Carrellas, state chapter coordinator for the National Motorists Association, says "it's like fleecing the motorist for another fine on top of existing violations," since police have to pull the driver over for something else.

He also argues that cell phones cause only a small percentage of accidents.

Pam Fischer, spokeswoman for the AAA New Jersey Automobile Club, says the larger problem of driver inattention can't be tackled by targeting one type of distraction.

"It's not the device, but it's the conversation that's the problem," she said, noting that the act of conversing makes the eyes focus ahead rather than scan around, which we need to do while driving.

"What we're doing intellectually stops that scanning from occurring," she said. "Your brain (is) not focused on the eyes anymore, it's focused on the conversation."

That means all cell phones, including the hands-free kind, are dangerous. Fischer argues that cell phones are only one part of the whole spectrum of distractions for drivers, and it's impossible to legislate against them all.

The onus is on drivers to stop shaving, talking on the phone, applying makeup or chowing down, and focus on the road, she said. If they don't, the police already have the authority to crack down on any sloppy driving that results.

"Our concern is that people are going to think they're going to be safer out there now because this law is on the books, and that's troubling to us," she said.