State to Ban Texting While Driving

Photo courtesy of flickr user irinaslutsky.

By Student Media Copy Editor Jacqueline Schafer

Effective July 1, texting while driving will be banned in Virginia. Gov. Tim Kaine signed House Bill 1876 into law on March 30, prohibiting drivers from using “any handheld personal communications device to manually enter multiple letters or text or to read a text message,” according to http://virginia.gov. The law will not apply to reading caller information or a name and number stored in the device.

According to The Virginian-Pilot, Delegate John Cosgrove, the sponsor of the bill, said that the “manual dexterity” needed to text “takes both hands and both eyes,” which draws attention away from operating a vehicle.

“This will be very positive. I see people all the time on roads like 66 swerving around and it is obvious they are texting. Hopefully, this new law will make them think about what they are doing,” said senior management major Loriana Campoverde.

The new law will apply to cars, bicycles, mopeds and other types of vehicles. However, it will not apply to persons operating emergency vehicles or those “lawfully parked or stopped.”

According to http://www.drivinglaws.org, this will be a secondary offense. As a secondary offense, an officer cannot pull a person over just for texting. They must have a primary reason for pulling the driver over, such as running a red light or speeding, before citing a texting violation. The fine for texting will be $20 on the first offense and $50 on the second offense and any subsequent offenses.

“I think it is good that it will only be a second offense. If you can drive perfectly and text at the same time I don’t see the problem. But, if it causes you to drive badly, you should get in trouble for it,” said senior accounting major Alicia Haskell.

The only cell phone law Virginia had previously was signed March 23, 2007 and prohibited drivers with a learner’s permit, as well as any driver under 18-years-old, from using a cell phone at all while driving. In 2006, a bill was proposed to prohibit hand-held phones while operating a vehicle, but was never passed.