Texting While Driving Ban Moves to Senate Floor

Air Date:02/08/2011

By Travis Berg

A bill banning texting while driving passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure bans texting while operating a motor vehicle in motion. It doesn't ban making a phone call. The penalty for violating the law is a Class two misdemeanor and a 500 dollar fine. Opponents say it will be difficult to prove when and where someone was texting. They also say current careless and wreckless driving laws already cover the issue. However, Lieutenant James Johns of Rapid City says they have tried using the current laws to combat texting and driving. The court dismissed a case because they couldn't prove careless driving.

Lt. Johns says, "The careless driving statute as it sits gets used primarily after the fact when a crash has occurred. Careless driving tickets, the vast majority of them, something bad has already occurred. And it's not just somebody sitting in their car using their phone. It is somebody has run into somebody, somebody has run over someone, somebody's hit a pedestrian. Those are all areas where we use the careless driving in a catch all."   

Senate Bill 171 passed with a 6 to1 vote and goes to the Senate floor. The bill to prohibit the use of certain wireless communication devices while driving has been deferred to another day.

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