Statewide texting ban, teen rules sent to Ohio gov

COLUM­BUS, Ohio (AP) — A statewide texting-while-driving ban that could be tricky to enforce cleared the Ohio Leg­is­la­ture on Tues­day and was headed to the governor's desk for his expected signature.

The House cleared the mea­sure on a 82-12 vote. The Sen­ate passed it ear­lier this month.

All dri­vers would be banned from tex­ting, though young dri­vers could more eas­ily be pulled over for it.

That's fine by 17-year-old Salome Ben­eye of Columbus.

"It should be more strictly enforced toward teens," Ben­eye said in a phone inter­view. "I'm not say­ing it shouldn't toward adults as well, but I feel like teens have a bet­ter chance of get­ting in greater acci­dents than adults would."

Ben­eye, who's had her license since Novem­ber, said she doesn't make phone calls or text while dri­ving thanks in part to a series of pic­tures high­light­ing dis­tracted dri­ving acci­dents that were shown in her dri­vers' edu­ca­tion class.

"It's really scary," she said. "No text or phone call is worth my life."

The bill would make tex­ting with hand-held devices a sec­ondary offense for adults. That means dri­vers could be tick­eted for typ­ing emails or instant mes­sages only if they were first pulled over for another offense, such as run­ning a red light.

The mea­sure is tougher on teen dri­vers. Tex­ting or using an elec­tronic device while dri­ving would be a pri­mary offense for those under age 18. Minors could not use their cell­phones, iPads, lap­tops or other elec­tronic devices while dri­ving unless there's an emergency.

Minors could be fined $150 for the first offense and have their license sus­pended for 60 days. Repeat offend­ers could face a $300 fine and get their license taken away for a year. Teens could have hands-free GPS nav­i­ga­tion devices, but they couldn't use other elec­tronic devices unless an emer­gency arises, or the vehi­cle was stopped and off the roadway.

The mea­sure would be among the broad­est in the coun­try in terms of teen dis­tracted dri­ving restric­tions, accord­ing to the Gov­er­nors High­way Safety Asso­ci­a­tion. Tex­ting while dri­ving is already pro­hib­ited in 38 states, the orga­ni­za­tion has found. An addi­tional five states pro­hibit text mes­sag­ing by new drivers.

Some states, such as such as Con­necti­cut and Wash­ing­ton, also ban young or new dri­vers from using wire­less devices even if it's hands-free.

Demo­c­ra­tic Rep. Nancy Gar­land, the bill's co-sponsor, said it would make Ohio's roads safer. She recounted sto­ries brought to her by con­stituents, fathers and wives whose rel­a­tives died from dis­tracted dri­vers who were texting.

"It is time to end these tragedies," Gar­land, of New Albany, told her colleagues.

The Ohio Fra­ter­nal Order of Police sup­ports the leg­is­la­tion. How­ever, the group's pres­i­dent has said the orga­ni­za­tion would have pre­ferred that tex­ting be a pri­mary offense for all dri­vers because it would have been eas­ier to enforce.

"You're ask­ing a law enforce­ment offi­cer to deter­mine at 30 mph whether some­one is under 18 or not, so that's a chal­lenge," said Jay McDon­ald, Ohio FOP president.

Still, McDon­ald said the mea­sure is a good first step in crack­ing down on the prob­lem of dis­tracted dri­ving among teens. "That's who we think are the most vul­ner­a­ble dri­vers," he said in a recent interview.

The mea­sure also gives offi­cers an avenue to inves­ti­gate whether tex­ting has played a role in a crash or traf­fic acci­dent, McDon­ald said. "It will enable us to get a war­rant and look into it much more thor­oughly than we did before."

Ohio's bill would make tex­ting behind the wheel a mis­de­meanor for dri­vers, with pos­si­ble fines of $150. The mea­sure wouldn't trump city ordi­nances on tex­ting or cell­phone use that might be tougher.

The leg­is­la­tion is a weaker statewide tex­ting ban than an ear­lier ver­sion that the House passed in June. That ver­sion had made tex­ting a pri­mary offense, but it didn't include the crack­down on teen drivers.

The switch to the sec­ondary offense came amid con­cerns in the Sen­ate about how the law would be enforced by author­i­ties. Sen­a­tors had wran­gled with con­cerns about enforce­ment since the bill stalled in their cham­ber last fall.

Dri­vers would have a six-month grace period after the bill takes effect. Law enforce­ment couldn't ticket or cite dri­vers for vio­la­tions, but could issue a warn­ing that pro­vides infor­ma­tion about the pro­hi­bi­tions on using electronics.

The bill pro­vides a hand­ful of exemp­tions for adults, includ­ing one that allows them to read and enter a name or num­ber to make a phone call.

Posted by Scott Mahoney on May 15 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.