Legislation to ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving cleared an Idaho Senate panel this afternoon an 8-1 vote; the measure also would repeal the state’s 2011 law banning texting while driving. That measure was just too hard to enforce, said Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian; he said he’s heard that over and over from law enforcement. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

“There’s no way they can enforce texting while driving – it’s just impossible,” Hagedorn said. But noting that Idaho’s injury and fatality rate is soaring – with distracted driving a likely cause – he said, “We’ve got to do better. … I think this is a good compromise to get us a little closer to where we can be safer drivers.”

Driving deaths on Idaho roads had been dropping for years, but they started rising again, sharply, just in the past few years. Backers of the bill said the Idaho Transportation Department reports that 65 Idahoans died in crashes involving the use of electronic devices in 2016, up from 51 in 2015.

Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, who cast the only vote against advancing the bill to the full Senate’s amending order for a minor amendment, said, “I get the safety thing, OK? I do.” he said. But he recounted how just this past Sunday, he met some people in downtown Boise who’d arrived from California. “And they’d had it with regulation, they’d had it with laws, they’d had it with rules. And they were up here looking for a house because Idaho doesn’t have laws, rules and regulations like California does. And that’s where I see this bill headed is more law, rules and regulation. I can’t support it.”