Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Posts Tagged ‘texting while driving’

Austin City Council members will vote next week on an ordinance that would prohibit text messaging while driving. If approved, it might be the first such citywide texting ban in Texas, officials said.

Drivers could still text while a vehicle is stopped. But the ordinance would ban writing, sending or viewing electronic messages on a cell phone, BlackBerry, iPhone or any other wireless communication device while driving. Electronic messages would include text messages, e-mails, posts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and “a command or request to access an Internet site,” according to a draft of the ordinance.

The ban would exempt the use of navigational systems or wireless devices permanently installed in a vehicle; texting because a life is in danger or to report a traffic accident or a medical emergency or to prevent a crime; and police officers, firefighters and paramedics who use wireless devices on duty.

A report released in July by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when truck drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater.

A violation would be a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $500 and can be appealed in Municipal Court. That penalty could increase if a driver is texting and committing other traffic violations, such as speeding.

The council unanimously approved the idea of a ban in August, but city staffers needed time to write actual rules. If council members pass the ordinance Oct. 22, it would take effect about a month later.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have texting-while-driving bans. A state law that took effect in Texas last month prohibits cell phone use in school zones. Austin and several other area cities, including Pflugerville, Round Rock and San Marcos, have erected signs and are enforcing that law, though some other cities have questioned whether they must enforce it.

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said a texting ban would be redundant because laws already exist that prohibit dangerous driving behaviors. A public awareness campaign about the risks of texting while driving would be more effective, said Debbie Russell, president of the Central Texas chapter of the ACLU of Texas. The ban could also be tough to enforce, she said.

Donald Baker, commander of the Austin Police Department’s highway enforcement division, said officers will use common sense to enforce the law and look for drivers who are obviously texting. Whether a driver was texting because of an emergency will be up to the officer’s discretion, he said.

Officers already have the authority to ticket drivers for a variety of dangerous behaviors, from speeding to aggressively changing lanes to following a vehicle too closely, Baker said. In some cases, those behaviors are caused by drivers absorbed in texting, he said.

Another safety-related ordinance up for a vote Oct. 22 would require a three-foot distance between vehicles and “vulnerable road users,” such as cyclists, pedestrians and people in wheelchairs. An existing state law requires
safe driving distance between vehicles and bicycles but does not specify how far apart they must be.

In most states, if somebody is texting behind the wheel and causes a crash that injures or kills someone, the penalty can be as light as a fine.

Utah is much tougher.

After a crash here that killed two scientists, Utah passed the nation’s toughest law to crack down on texting behind the wheel. Offenders now face up to 15 years in prison.

The new law, which took effect in May, penalizes a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunken driver who kills someone.

In effect, a crash caused, by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an “accident” like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a texting-related crash would now be considered inherently reckless.

“It’s a willful act,” said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a supporter of the new measure. “If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.”

The Utah law represents a concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking behind the wheel – a topic to be discussed at a national conference about the dangers of distracted driving being organized by the U.S. Transportation Department for this fall.

Studies show that talking on a cell phone while driving is as risky as driving with a .08 blood alcohol level — generally the standard for drunken driving — and that the risk of driving while texting is at least twice that dangerous.

Treating texting behind the wheel like drunken driving raises complex legal questions.

John Wesley Hall, who just stepped down as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said police might have difficulty proving a driver suspected of texting wasn’t merely dialing a phone. If an officer or prosecutor wants to confiscate a phone or phone records to determine whether a driver was texting at the time of the crash, such efforts can be thwarted by search-and-seizure and privacy defenses, lawyers said.

“The police have no business going into my phone,” Hall said.
Prosecutors and judges in other states already have the latitude to use more general reckless-driving laws to penalize multitasking drivers who cause injury and death.

The Austin City Council unanimously agreed day to establish a ban on text messaging while driving. A violation would be a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $500 and can be appealed in Municipal Court. City staffers still have to write an ordinance that the council must approve, a process that could take a few months.

The Utah law “is very note worthy,” said Anne Teigen, a policy specialist with the Natonal Conference of State Legislatures. “They have raised the bar and said texting while driving is not just irresponsible, and it’s not just a bad idea — it is negligent.”

Under Utah’s law, someone caught texting and driving now faces up to three months in jail and up to a $750 fine, a misdemeanor. If they cause injury or death, the punishment can grow to a felony and up to a $10,000 fine and 15 years in prison.

Alaska is the only other state that takes a similarly tough approach to electronic distraction.

Democratic lawmakers recently called for states to ban texting while driving or face cuts in highway money, citing the need to reduce driver distraction and potential highway deaths and injuries.

“When drivers have their eyes on their cell phones instead of the road, the results can be dangerous and even deadly,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who presented the legislation Wednesday with Democrats Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

Fourteen states — Texas is not among them — and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal.

Questions have arisen, however, over whether the laws could be enforced, whether there is enough data to warrant a ban or if reckless driving statutes already cover texting.

Steve Largent, a former Oklahoma congressman who leads a group kown as CTIA — The Wireless Association, said his organization supports “state legislative remedies to solve this issue. But simply passing a law will not change behavior. We also need to educate new and experienced drivers on the dangers of taking their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.”

The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, said that though texting and driving is dangerous, it does not support a ban because it would be difficult to enforce.

“Highway safety laws are only effective if they can be enforced and if the public believes they will be ticketed for not Complying. To date, that has not been the case with many cell phone restrictions,” said Vernon Betkey, the group’s chairman.

The proposal follows studies showing the dangers of operating
handheld devices while driving.

In a study on texting while driving dangers released this week, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks. The researchers said the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers.

Lawmakers also cited a report by Car and Driver magazine that suggested texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.

Texting has grown from about 10 billion Messages a month in December 2005 to more than 110 billion in December 2008, said CTIA, the cell phone industry’s trade group.

The legislation would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. It would be patterned after the way Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban.