House approved text messaging ban

By James Q. Lynch

The Gazette

DES MOINES – Floor managing a ban on texting while driving has been a lesson in the legislative process for freshman Rep. Curt Hanson that many more-experienced lawmakers never get.

“I thought it would be a simple bill,” the freshman Democrat from Fairfield said Tuesday before the House voted 66-33 to approve a text ban compromise and send the measure to the Senate. “I've gotten a firsthand lesson in the intricacies of the legislative process. It's been a wonderful experience for a freshman.”

He called the bill, the result of a House-Senate conference committee, “a great merger” of ideas that yielded a bill “better than what we started with.”

The conference committee combined the House's hard ban on the use of handheld electronic entertainment or communication devices with the Senate's ban on reading, writing or sending text messages and e-mails while driving.

The compromise version of HF 2456 allows texting exemptions for drivers engaged in public safety duties, a health care professional in the course of an emergency situation, truck drivers receiving digital dispatch messages and a driver receiving safety-related information such as emergency, traffic or weather alerts. The texting ban also does not apply global positioning or navigation systems.

“This isn't about safety,” said Rep. Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia, who pointed out that a truck driven by someone distracted by a digital dispatch message is probably more of a danger than a Mini Cooper driven by a text-messaging driver.

Co-floor manager Rep. Dave Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, said the bill is not perfect, but was a first step toward reducing driver distractions.

Drivers would be able to use iPods or other devices if they are operated through controls permanently installed on a vehicle, such as the radio.

The bill calls for a one-year education period. During that time, law enforcement officers, who cannot use suspicion that a driver is texting as a primary reason for a traffic stop, will give warning tickets. Phones may not be confiscated if drivers are violating the ban.

Violators will be charged with a simple misdemeanor and a $30 fine.  If texting is the cause of an accident that results in serious injury or death, penalties increase up to a $1,000 fine and 180 day license suspension.

Hanson liked the fact the law applies to adults as well as teen drivers.

“Many adults realize how dangerous this is,” he said. “Now they will set the example. They won't be doing one thing while telling kids not to do it.”

Hanson, a retired driver education teacher, said he wasn't intimidated at the prospects of running a bill, but was apprehensive when it went to conference committee because he wasn't familiar with the process.

“I had a steep learning curve,” he said.

The House originally approved a ban on writing and sending text messages 64-31. After the Senate banned reading text messages on a 44-6 vote, too, the House voted 55-41 to simply ban the use of handheld electronic communication and entertainment devices by teen drivers.

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