AAA Oklahoma Urges the OK Legislature to Pass the Bill Banning “Texting While Driving”

NEWS from AAA Oklahoma, March 7 – Oklahoma Rep. Danny Morgan’s bill to make texting while driving illegal in the state has won the endorsement of AAA Oklahoma.

In a letter to members of the Oklahoma Legislature, AAA spokesman Chuck Mai said, “AAA Oklahoma strongly supports Rep. Morgan’s House Bill 1316 for two reasons: 1) our members tell us they rate text messaging and emailing while driving as a very serious threat to their safety on the road, and 2) drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to crash or get into a near-crash situation than drivers who are not texting,” according to a 2009 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study.

HB 1316 was passed last week by the House Public Safety committee and now goes on to be considered by the full House. It must be passed by the House by March 17 or the bill will die. Thirty states, Washington, D.C. and Guam now have laws outlawing texting while driving, AAA says. Eleven of these state laws were passed in 2010.

“Frankly, I can’t think of a more dangerous activity one can engage in behind the wheel,” Mai wrote to legislators. “Texting drivers take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel and their minds off of what they should be doing: driving.”

With reports of texting while driving on the rise, it’s clear education and enforcing existing laws aren’t working, Mai said. “Besides, reckless driving laws only come into play when the driver is driving erratically or crashes. AAA wants law enforcement to have a tool to use which can prevent that crash from happening.”

Enforcement of a texting law will present special challenges but the tell-tale bobbing of the head as the driver texts and drives is a dead giveaway, Mai says. Some texters, especially teenagers, say they are so good at texting, they can do it blindfolded. In these cases, the texting law would be enforced just as DUI laws and mandatory insurance laws are now, at the time the driver is stopped for another offense or in the event of a crash.  

AAA is urging members of the Oklahoma Legislature to send a clear message to motorists that texting while driving is so dangerous, it’s against the law.

The auto club is also encouraging Oklahomans who favor a ban to write to their local legislators and let them know they support House Bill 1316. To find the names and contact information for specific legislators by district, go online to www.oklegislature.gov.