Tube City Almanac

March 09, 2012

Briefly Noted: Texting Ban Now In Effect

Category: News || By Submitted Report

A new state law prohibiting motorists from "texting while driving" took effect yesterday.

The law makes texting while a car is in motion a so-called "primary offense" --- meaning that a police officer can make a traffic stop --- subject to a $50 fine.

"Your most important job when behind the wheel is to focus only on driving," said Barry Schoch, state Secretary of Transportation. "Most people would never close their eyes for five seconds while driving, but that's how long you take your eyes of the road, or even longer, every time you send or read a text message."

The new law makes it a crime to use a smartphone, laptop, PDA or other device for sending any text-based message, reading email or surfing the Web while behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Police will have the authority to pull over a vehicle if the driver appears to be texting or using a laptop or other device to send a message, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said.

"This is a serious problem and we are hoping that we can educate citizens on the dangers of texting while driving and prevent future accidents," he said. "Ultimately, we hope that our enforcement efforts will create voluntary compliance by the majority of motorists."

According to state officials, there were nearly 14,000 crashes in Pennsylvania in 2010 where distracted driving played a role. Sixty-eight people died in those crashes.

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