Bill seeks to ban text-messaging by NC drivers

North Carolina lawmakers told teenagers three years ago to shut off their cell phones while driving.

Now the legislators want all drivers to stop mashing down on those phones with their thumbs, too.

At least three bills have been filed since the General Assembly reconvened last month seeking to bar drivers from text messaging, which lawmakers and safety advocates argue create another distraction that can lead to accidents, injuries and death.

"This is about safety, protecting the public - not just about children, but protecting all of us," state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said Tuesday at a news conference backing a House measure. "As technology advances, we must ensure that public safety is not diminished."

The bills attempt to build on a 2006 law that makes it illegal for drivers under 18 to talk on the phone, whether or not a handsfree device is used. While texting is a popular pastime with young people, the bills introduced would apply to all drivers as the activity spreads to more adults.

In the bills, people who break the law would be subject to a fine of up to $100 and court costs. No driver's license points or insurance penalties would be issued. Emergency personnel would be exempt from the ban.

Seven states and the District of Columbia currently have a text messaging ban for all drivers, according to the national Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies.

Text messaging appears to be more distracting than talking on the phone, according to lawmakers, because drivers often look down - and away from the road - to type, or they hold onto the wheel while typing into their cell phones with both hands.

As with the 2006 law, which can lead to a $25 fine, the bill's chief sponsors acknowledge that law enforcement officers may find the texting ban difficult to enforce.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said last June that researchers who watched as North Carolina high school students left school found that teenage drivers used their cell phones at about the same rate both before and after the law took effect.

"I think everybody would agree that texting is a lot different from talking on the phone," said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who voted against the final 2006 cell phone law. Right now, Berger said he wouldn't fight against the texting-ban bill: "While it's hard to be against something like texting while driving, I just don't know that what we'd be doing is something that would provide positive impact."

Rep. Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, one of the bill's primary sponsors, said teaching people about the law will serve as a deterrent even if catching violators is difficult.

"We know that people are going to take shortcuts," Pierce said. "But we hope that ... folks who are law-abiding would choose not to something they know is going to be dangerous."

Recent tragedies have raised awareness about the dangers associated with text messaging and operating vehicles.

Investigators have said a California community train engineer who failed to stop at a red light in September before colliding with a Union Pacific train had sent a text message seconds before the accident. Twenty-five people were killed.

Closer to home, a Greensboro university professor was injured last March when his bicycle was struck from behind by a motorist who police said had been text messaging on her phone moments before the collision.

A study co-sponsored by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved a form of driver inattention seconds before the accident. A primary cause of inattention includes cell phones, the 2008 study found.

"We know that motorists recognize that cell phone usage in cars for both hand-held and handsfree and texting are major distractions - if they're honest," said Stephen Phillips, traffic safety manager for AAA Carolinas motor club, which supports the texting ban.

AT&T North Carolina also supports the bill if it applies to manual texting, said Herb Crenshaw, a company lobbyist. Voice-activated technology could one day make pressing the phone to text unnecessary, he said.