Bill Banning Texting and Driving Passes Oklahoma House

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The Oklahoma House has overwhelmingly approved restrictions on texting while driving, despite concerns among the measure’s strongest supporters that they don’t go far enough.

House members voted 96-2 for the bill, sending it to the Senate for debate and a vote. A similar bill is already pending on the Senate floor.

The bill by Rep. Terry O’Donnell, R-Tulsa, would make Oklahoma the 45th state in the nation to place restrictions on texting while driving. The measure would make texting and driving a secondary traffic violation, meaning police officers would have to initiate a traffic stop for some other offense before the driver could be ticketed for texting and driving.

Supporters welcomed the measure but said texting while driving needs to be a primary traffic offense in which a law enforcement officer can initiate a traffic stop, similar to speeding and running a stop sign.

“It’s the best of a bad choice,” said Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater. Williams and other lawmakers questioned why lawmakers would not support a stronger texting and driving measure.

“This bill does not empower our law enforcement officers to save one life,” said Democratic Leader Scott Inman, D-Oklahoma City, who debated against the bill but voted for it. Inman said it makes no sense for a law enforcement officer to have to wait for an inattentive driver to cause a collision before he can write a ticket for testing while driving.

“That has got to change. We have got to get with the times,” Inman said.

O’Donnell said he was asked to author the legislation by law enforcement organizations.

“They want this legislation,” O’Donnell said. “It’s a distraction that is at epidemic proportions in this state.”

The measure marks the second consecutive year O’Donnell has authored legislation to ban texting while driving in the state. Last year, a similar bill died on the House floor.

A 2009 study on cellphones and distracted driving by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that text messaging increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 23 times over a driver who wasn’t distracted.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 3,328 people were killed nationwide in distraction-related crashes in 2012 and that an estimated 421,000 people were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver — a 9 percent increase from the estimated 387,000 injured in 2011.

O’Donnell’s bill would prohibit operating a motor vehicle while texting, emailing or using instant messaging on an electronic device while the vehicle is in motion. Texting would be allowed when a vehicle is stopped at a traffic light or railroad crossing, or for other reasons.

Lawmakers adopted an amendment that names the measure after Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas Dees, who was killed on Jan. 31 when a vehicle crashed into him and another trooper near the scene of a traffic accident on Interstate 40.

The measure is House Bill 1965.