Proposed bills would ban talking on cell phone and texting
The bills look toward safer driving and attention to the road.
Published Feb. 2, 2009
Several bills are being put through the Missouri General Assembly to ban texting and talking on cell phones while driving because of a number of fatal car crashes due to these practices.
Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, D-St. Louis, has sponsored a bill that would ban cell phone usage while driving. Although the language does not include texting, El-Amin plans to amend to bill to include it.
"I believe that texting poses even more of a threat than just talking," El-Amin said. "It requires not just a hand, but also your fingers and the attention is completely off driving."
One of the accidents that brought this issue to El-Amin's attention was the fatal accident last summer on U.S. Highway 40, where a truck driver talking on his cell phone caused the death of three people.
"Unfortunately, sometimes it takes something drastic to call this to our attention," El-Amin said. "Often, we don't champion certain issues until we lose someone. What we have to do is be more proactive. It shouldn't be that I have to witness a death to know that this is good policy."
El-Amin plans to work with Rep. Joe Smith, R-St. Charles, who has a similar bill and get a hearing in the next couple of weeks.
A number of states, as well as Washington and the Virgin Islands, have banned cell phone usage while driving.
A separate bill going through the state Senate explicitly bans text messaging while driving. The bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-Arnold, hopes to bring attention to the dangers of texting and driving.
"When you logically think about texting someone while driving, there is no possible way your eyes can be on the road," McKenna said. "You can almost tell who is texting as they are driving down the road. They're steering with their knee and both hands are on their cell phone and their eyes are looking down into in their lap."
McKenna first became interested in the issue after the editor of a local newspaper brought the dangers of texting to his attention.
"He makes a case that it is more dangerous to text and drive than to drink and drive," McKenna said.
McKenna said that it is not just on the highway where texting could cause an accident.
"In a neighborhood, a kid or someone's pet can run across the street and something tragic can happen," McKenna said.
Although the penalty for being caught texting and driving would not be very strict according to this bill, McKenna said he hopes it will shed some light on the dangers of the situation.
"It's not the penalty I'm as concerned with, but to make people aware of the danger," McKenna said. "I want to try to change the mindset of people before they start driving."
According to statistics published on the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Web site, 247 people died in car crashes due to inattention in 2007.
Another 17,179 people were injured in crashes due to inattention.
"Driving is a multi-skill endeavor that requires hand-eye coordination," Boone County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Mike Krohn said. "Anything that can take attention off driving is a bad thing."
Krohn said the number of hands-free devices certainly help to alleviate the dangers of carrying on a phone conversation while driving.
"Automakers have been very forthcoming with their desire to build hands-free devices into cars," Krohn said. "Texting is an entirely different issue, though."
Krohn said he would not necessarily ban all cell phone usage, but outlawing texting while driving would be a good thing.
"I can't think of a single text message that would be more important than someone's safety," Krohn said.