Officials to mull ban on texting at wheel

October 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

City council will consider legislation next week to ban texting while driving.

At Wednesday’s council safety committee meeting, Chairwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, said texting while driving is a “big problem.”

The language of the proposed ban will be written by the city’s law department and be ready by council’s next meeting, Wednesday, for a potential vote, she said.

The city will follow the lead of other communities that already have texting bans in writing the law, Gillam said.

A ban on texting while driving took effect Oct. 1 in Canfield. A first offense there is a $100 fine, a second is $250, and anything after that is up to $500 per violation.

“You see people doing it all over the place,” Gillam said of texting. “In places where it’s banned, people lower their phone so as not to get caught, which poses another problem. I fear that [will be a problem], but there needs to be something to stop” people from texting while driving.

Gillam also raised the possibility of the city installing cameras in high-crime areas to monitor potential criminal activity there.

She said the cameras would be very costly but should be considered by the city.

There’s “going to be a need for something like that eventually,” Gillam said.

Also, council will consider legislation next Wednesday to license businesses that operate electronic games of chance.

There are about four locations in the city with such games, said Councilman John R. Swierz, D-7th.

The proposed legislation would require businesses with 100 or more of the machines to pay a $6,000 annual license fee to the city in addition to $25 per machine every six months, he said.

Those with four to 99 machines would pay a $4,000 annual license fee and a $25 per machine charge every six months.

Businesses with one to three machines wouldn’t pay an annual license fee but pay $250 a machine a year.