The bill that would make cellphone texting while driving illegal passed its final reading in the Texas House on Thursday, April 18, by a vote of 97-45. The Senate will review the bill next, and if it is successful there, it will go to Gov. Rick Perry.
The governor vetoed a similar bill in 2011.
The current bill, HB 63, was sponsored by Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland. It is referred to as the Alex Brown Memorial Act in honor of West Texas teen Alex Brown, who was texting when she died in a vehicle accident in 2009.
If the bill becomes law, a driver caught texting would face a $100 fine for a first offense and a $200 fine for a second offense.
Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Bryan Taylor said he isn’t familiar with the bill’s language but personally supports any legislation that gets drivers off their phones.
“I think it’s gonna save lives,” Taylor said. “The whole concept is beneficial.”
As written, the bill would still allow people to look up phone numbers and talk on their cellphones. This aspect of the bill might cause problems for lawmen trying to enforce it.
An email sent to Craddick’s office asking why he didn’t include all cellphone use in the bill wasn’t immediately answered.
Lubbock Police Department Sgt. Jason Lewis said he hadn’t read the bill, but if people are still allowed to use their phones for some functions it could make enforcing the law a challenge.
Trying to determine just what a driver is doing on the phone could be difficult, but Lewis has an example to illustrate where it wouldn’t be. He said if an officer sees a driver sitting through a green light while using a phone, it’s pretty obvious what the driver is doing.
Taylor agreed with Lewis that the proposed law may pose enforceability issues for officers if suspected texters refuse to allow police to look at their phones to obtain definitive proof they were texting while driving.
Currently, Lubbock has a city ordinance that prohibits the use of electronic devices in active school zones. Some Texas cities have already enacted ordinances that are stricter than Lubbock’s ordinance or the proposed bill.
Amarillo enacted an ordinance last year that made cellphone use illegal while driving.
Amarillo Police Department spokesman Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said APD officers have written 25 tickets to violators of the ordinance since February.
If the bill becomes law, Amarillo’s ordinance will be voided because municipalities can’t make ordinances that are more strict than state laws.
Neufeld said his department isn’t worried about whether or not the bill is signed into law, and APD generally doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
“We’ll just follow the rules that are given to us,” he said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety isn’t commenting on the pending legislation either, according to Sgt. Bryan Witt. He deferred comment on the matter to Tom Vinger, the department’s spokesman in Austin.
DPS does not take positions on any proposed legislation, Vinger said in an email. Further, in certain cases, a department employee may provide testimony or serve as a resource witness during a committee hearing as requested by a member of the Texas Legislature.
He was unsure if any member of DPS had testified before the House on this matter.
___________________________________
source: Lubbockonline (Loesch, 4/20)
No comments:
Post a Comment