Legislators look to make Iowa roadways safer by targeting impaired driving

DES MOINES - Bills designed to target drunk, drugged and distracted drivers picked up traction Tuesday in the Iowa Senate.

A Senate Transportation subcommittee advanced a bill that would ban the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving but make provisions for future advancements by automakers like voice-activated texting or built-in navigation that would not require setting by hand while driving.

'I think this is ... a strong step in the right direction,” Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, said in supporting Senate Study Bill 1079. Proponents took heart in the fact that a similar bill - House Study Bill 139 - surfaced on the House side Tuesday, as well.

The bill in the Senate expands Iowa's current anti-texting law by barring use of an electronic communication device while driving, but provides an exception for using a device in a hands-free mode.

Supporters that included representatives of law enforcement, safety agencies, automakers, insurance carriers and communication providers said the hand-held prohibition was a preferred approach to merely making texting a primary rather than a secondary offense as some have proposed.

Major John Godar of the Linn County Sheriff's Office said Iowa needs to have a law that's enforceable while keeping pace with advancements in technology.

'The enforcement of a texting-only ban is very difficult because we use our smartphones for more than just texting,” said Susan Cameron, a lobbyist for the Iowa Sheriff's & Deputies Association. 'What we believe is the data supports that fatalities go down when we take the phones out of your hand while driving.

'The reason this is different from other distractions is because everybody has phones - 95 percent of American adults have phones,” she added. 'It truly is needed.”

The main opposition to the bill Tuesday came from civil libertarians and NAACP representatives who wanted protections added to prevent police from using the new provisions to make stops based upon racial profiling.

During a separate Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Tuesday, civil liberties advocates raised concerns that another bill - SSB 1101 - seeking to crack down on distracted driving might create unintended expansion in judicial powers.

The proposed legislation would require drivers arrested or convicted of driving impaired to participate in twice-daily sobriety monitoring, as well as require some drivers to install ignition interlocks in their vehicles. The sobriety monitoring program was modeled after initiatives in South Dakota and four other states.

The recommendations came out of a task force Gov. Terry Branstad formed to make recommendations on ways to keep drunk, drugged and distracted drivers off Iowa highways following a year when traffic deaths spiked to 403 - the most since 2008.

SSB 1101 would provide that cellphone use while driving would be considered evidence of reckless driving 'with willful or wanton disregard” for public safety. A driver who struck and killed someone would commit a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000.

Both Senate measures advanced to full committee on Tuesday.

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