One of the most anticipated bills for debate in the upcoming Texas Legislature will be a renewed effort by Rep Tom Craddick (R, Midland), to create a statewide “Texting While Driving Ban.”
(KPRC 2 News)
And recently a flurry of stories have been seen on this issue featuring both victims, and detailing a wide array of individual city ordinances that vary widely in both prohibitions and in actual enforcement.
Several cities across the state, including several in the Houston area, have such bans. Yet law enforcement in these cities often don’t do much to enforce these laws because the rules required to prove the driver was texting (as opposed to other purposes) can be difficult and vary so widely across the state.
In 2011 a similar effort was made to unify rules statewide, but Gov Rick Perry vetoed the bill “a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.”
However, already in the early bill filings for the next legislative session, Rep. Craddick has introduced House Bill 63 – the Alex Brown Memorial Act. The Representative says this bill introduces a common sense safety measure to ban the use of a wireless communication device to read, write or send a text-based communication while driving, except when a vehicle is stopped. Although the ban does not apply to dialing a number on a hand-held device, using GPS on a hand-held device, or using voice-operated technology or hands-free.
The bill is named in honor of Alex Brown who lost her life texting while driving in a single car accident, as she drove to school during her senior year in high school. The family has since formed the Remembering Alex Brown (RAB) Foundation to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving.
RELATED STORIES:
- Texas lawmaker launches assault on texting & driving (KRIV 26 News)
- Texas Cities Differ on Texting-While-Driving Bans (Texas Tribune)
- New effort underway to make texting while driving in Texas illegal (KTRK 13 News)
- Texting While Driving Could Be Banned In Texas (News 92 FM)
- How’s Texting While Driving Ban Working Locally? (KUHF Public Radio)