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I was at a cocktail reception for Rep. Bogdanoff, who voted against texting and driving this past year – successfully. She had some very good reasons, and I will contact her office and get those on paper – you would think this would be a no brainer, but I think she had some valid points.
Just had a long conversation with Aaron Nevins (954.762.3757) in Rep. Bogdanoff’s office. Here’s what he said:
There are many things that distract drivers, in fact according to a study done, the worst is drinking coffee while driving (spills, hot, etc.). So this issue would spill over into the ‘what abouts’ (what about reading & driving, what about shaving & driving, etc..). With regards to the specific bill (which did not pass last year), it was hugely problematic. Texting & driving was only a secondary offense, similar to not wearing a seat belt. This means that in order to be charged, you already have to be pulled over for a primary offense.
Also, it only warranted a $30 ticket, and was not treated as a major infraction, similar to jay walking. In order to convict, a police officer would have to get a warrant to go into someone’s phone to prove it. From a law enforcement standpoint, they just wouldn’t get a warrant for a minor traffic infraction.
Insurance companies would, if an accident resulted, but they already do that now. This wouldn’t change anything for them.
Most importantly, there was a specific exemption for navigational devices. The bill would allow that, and cell phones have navigational devices, so anyone questioned about this could just say ‘i was using the navigational device,’ which would make the ticket go away.
What Aaron did say was that we could advocate for tighter careless / reckless driving laws (not sure if we’re stepping out of our realm with this one ?), and tweaking careless driving statutes. For example, in D.C., they just passed a law requiring drivers to ‘drive with full attention to the road.’
Another problem with this was that there are possibly areas where it would be safer to ‘text & drive’ than other areas.