A texting-while-driving ban is working its way through the state Senate with no clear guidelines on enforcement.
Senate Bill 2793 has passed the Judiciary Committee B Division and will likely be sent to the Highways and Transportation Committee before it reaches the Senate floor. The bill expands current state law which prohibits any driver with a learner”s permit from texting while operating a motor vehicle to include all drivers.
Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus, says the bill has support in the Senate and believes it will eventually pass the House of Representatives to become law, but he”s not sure how it will be enforced.
Ostensibly, law enforcement would need to witness a driver texting on the road before making a traffic stop; which drivers could avoid by simply holding their phones below the windows of their cars, out of sight to passers-by.
“It”s going to be hard. It”s not a perfect law,” said Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John.
St. John is a staunch supporter of the state law, but doesn”t have any further ideas regarding enforcement than he did in July when Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens suggested to the City Council that Columbus look into enacting its own law.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage informed the council permission would have to come from the state level to pass a local law and a resolution was passed seeking a local and private agreement from the Legislature. Turnage said Friday he hasn”t heard back from legislators regarding the city”s request.
Mickens suggested the law after his then 18-year-old son was involved in a minor traffic accident which involved texting. There were no injuries in that incident but Mickens” research revealed texting was one of the leading causes of accidents across the country. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, Mississippi led the nation in teenage driving fatalities prior to 2009.
Thirty states currently ban texting for all drivers. Eight states forbid use of any handheld devices while driving, but hands-free phone use is allowed.
Still, the enforcement conundrum persists. How can an officer prove a driver was distracted by reading or writing a text without witnessing the activity?
“You get into some privacy stuff if you let a patrolman who stops you grab your phone and see if you”ve been texting,” said Brown.
Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office Chief Deputy Greg Wright commented to The Dispatch on the issue in 2009 when the texting ban on young drivers passed.
“I can safely say I know it happens, but it is kind of difficult to catch drivers doing it,” said Wright. “But if it was an instance of a serious wreck with injuries or deaths and we had evidence that texting may have caused it, there could be criminal charges filed after we pulled that person”s phone records.”
Senate Bill 2793 will likely see some more changes before reaching the Senate floor — where it could arrive as early as next week — and may undergo further changes in the House where similar bills are under consideration. It may become a secondary charge, one which can only be tacked on to another charge.
Other states like New York are mulling stronger measures, such as a ban on texting-while-walking. Critics of those initiatives argue distraction levels, unlike blood-alcohol levels, cannot be measured objectively.
Distracted driving is just as hard to prove. Officials don”t doubt texting has led to some traffic accidents locally, but St. John could not remember a single case of a crash in Columbus which definitely involved texting.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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