Texting-while-driving ban passes Senate on 29-5 vote

After a half-hour’s debate, the Senate has voted 29-5 in favor of SB 1352, to add a clause to Idaho’s inattentive driving law banning texting while driving. “It’s uniquely dangerous,” said Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, the Senate transportation chairman. He answered numerous questions from other senators - including offering to make adjustments to some of their smart phones to help them comply with the measure - and said young people, who are most likely to text while driving, have come to him overwhelmingly in support of the new ban. The definition in the bill is broad enough, he assured senators, that it covers reviewing or sending text - so it covers not just text messaging, but also e-mailing, tweeting and Facebooking. “According to the University of Utah, using a handheld device while driving slows down a driver’s reaction time as much as a blood-alcohol level of .08,” McGee told the Senate. “Texting while driving multiplies your chances of getting in an accident by four times.”

Among the opponents was Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, a lawyer, who said, “What we’re doing here is criminalizing looking at a text message when it doesn’t cause you to drive inattentively at all, when it’s done in a perfectly safe manner. … Let’s criminalize conduct that is unsafe, and not criminalize conduct that is done in a safe manner.” Backers included Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, who said a cheerleader in his district who was running late was responding to text messages from her squad members urging her to hurry up when she crashed her car and was seriously injured. The bill now moves to the House.