Friday, May 4, 2012
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Senate signed off on legislation Thursday that would ban texting while driving, with stiffer penalties for teens who use any kind of handheld electronic devices while behind the wheel.
House Bill 99 passed on a vote of 25-8 and heads back to the Ohio House for concurrence.
The bill would ban texting while driving for adults, with exemptions for GPS units, cellphones and other handheld devices, as long as they are not being used for writing, reading or sending text messages.
The violation would be a secondary offense, meaning law enforcement could not issue a citation unless officers have cause to stop a driver for other violations.
The legislation also would ban the use of any hand-held electronic communications devices by drivers younger than 18, except in the case of an emergency.
For minors, using electronic communications devices while driving could result in a $150 fine and a mandatory 60-day driver’s-license or permit suspension for first-time offenders and a $300 fine and one-year suspension for repeat violators.
“I believe this legislation will go a long way to deterring both adults and teens from the dangers of texting and will help save countless amounts of lives, and we will never know how many we save,” said Sen. Tom Patton, a Republican from Cleveland and chairman of the committee that considered the legislation.
Sen. John Eklund, a Republican from Chardon, supported the bill in light of earlier legislation that limited the number of passengers allowed in a teen-driven vehicle.
Since that law took effect several years ago, he said, the number of fatalities from accidents involving teen-age drivers has dropped 26 percent.
“There is nobody in this room who would suggest that the use of these gizmos is not a distraction,” Eklund said.
But Republicans and Democrats voted against the bill, saying there were too many exemptions, would be difficult for officers to enforce and amounted to a taking of individual freedoms.
Sen. Capri Cafaro, a Democrat from Warren, said it would allow reading newspapers, playing games or writing personal notes while driving.
“At the end of the day, you can’t legislate common sense,” she said.
Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati, said the legislation was “hastily drafted,” could lead to multiple citations for the same offense during a single traffic stop and doesn’t deal with the real issue at hand — distracted driving.
Sen. Bill Coley, a Republican from southwestern Ohio who also opposed, added, “I strongly support the provisions of this bill as they apply to drivers under 18. ... But let’s be clear: Texting, talking to other people in the vehicle, entering destinations into a GPS or just dipping your french fry in ketchup — distracted driving is dangerous.”