According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, North Carolina joins 19 other states and the District of Columbia making it illegal to text while operating a moving vehicle. In June the bill was signed into law by Governor Beverly Perdue and will prohibit drivers from actions such as texting or reading e-mails on cell phones while driving. If caught, offenders face $100 in fines, plus court costs.
The bill, which is available for public access on the North Carolina Legislative Web site, states that “It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a vehicle on a public street or highway or public vehicular area while using a mobile telephone to: Manually enter multiple letters or text in the device as a means of communicating with another person; or [to] read any electronic mail or text message transmitted to the device or stored within the device, provided that this prohibition shall not apply to any name or number stored in the device nor to any caller identification information.”
Representative Garland Pierce, the sponsor of the bill, said the idea came from news of various accidents because of distractions from cell phones.
“The main accident I recall that started the idea for this bill was the train that ran through the lighting system and it was proven the conductor was texting while operating the train. This is just one of many accidents that have shown how distracting texting is for people in various methods of transit and its harmful consequences,” he said.
Luke Carter, a junior in civil engineering, said the law should be beneficial.
“Texting while driving is very distracting, I’ll admit I do it some, but this law will help me not do it anymore,” he said.
A driver who is caught texting while driving will receive a ticket for $100 but will not receive points on his or her license, according to the bill.
“No drivers license points or insurance surcharge shall be assessed as a result of a violation of this section. Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall not constitute negligence per se or contributory negligence per se by the operator in any action for the recovery of damages arising out of the operation, ownership or maintenance of a vehicle,” the exact wording of the bill says.
One main opposition to the law is the ability to enforce it.
Campus Police Crime Prevention Officer Steve Carlton said the law will be enforced on campus, even if that will be hard.
“We will issue some warnings first, then after a period of time move on to citations,” he said. “It will be kind of difficult in general for all officers to enforce, just like the seat belt law, but we will evaluate situations and take into consideration the possibility of accidents happening because of texting and act accordingly.”
Representative Darrell McCormick, who voted against the bill, said the law is an example of bad legislation.
“We keep building laws on existing laws, and being convicted of reckless driving, regardless of the action that was considered reckless, would cover it all. There are many things that drivers find to distract them — makeup, the newspaper, kids — but we can’t outlaw everything people can use as a distraction,” he said.
With debate over the law’s potential effectiveness, supporters of the bill reinforce its purpose.
Pierce said the purpose of the law is to send a message.
“The main concern is the safety on highways; this is not so much about catching people, it is about preventing people from doing it in the first place. It’s about hoping law abiding citizens won’t do it in the first place, and for those that we do catch, they will pay the price,” he said.
Based on the wording of the bill, sitting at a stop light or pulling a vehicle to the side of the road while texting is not illegal. The fine only applies to those who are moving while texting.
McCormick said the bill is a waste of resources, but it brings appropriate attention to the issue.
“It’s a bad law, but it makes good headlines,” he said. “If someone is dumb enough to be texting while driving then that is their faulty judgement, they should wait and text at a stop light. But there is a lot of promotion about this law so hopefully people will pay attention and see the message, don’t text and drive.”
The law has gathered lots of attention as it nears the day it becomes official, and there is widespread attention to spread awareness of its existence.
Pierce said there are many programs describing their enforcement in support of the bill.
“There will be a press conference with the people who signed it and different law enforcement agencies, including Highway Safety, who will be in attendance. Various phone companies are trying to send a message as well, they will send a text message out to customers reminding them not to text while driving,” he said.
The first draft of the bill was written in January and it went through a lot of revision before being signed into law in June.
After lengthy debate over language and provisions of the bill Pierce said a draft was finally agreed upon.
“There was a lot of back and forth during the process of getting it approved, even some dealings with other states who have the same sort of law,” Pierce said. “There was some language in early versions that made it almost fail, the early version is quite different from the final version.”
Carlton said students should log onto Youtube and watch a video to see the effects of texting while driving.
“England made a video about texting while driving, it’s gruesome but not too long. It’s interesting because it doesn’t hold back in showing the effects and might shock some people. To find it they should Google texting while driving England,” he said.
Timothy Steele Johnson, a junior in communications, said the law might help save lives.
“I’ve never killed anyone, but texting while driving is really distracting so I could see how people get hurt. It’s a good law because it might help save some lives,” he said.
