New Hampshire texting ban now law

New Hampshire drivers can no longer legally text message and drive come Jan. 1.

Gov. John Lynch signed legislation Friday that prohibits using two hands to type on an electronic device. Entering numbers on a cell phone is allowable.

“It is clear that texting while driving poses a serious danger on our roadways. This new law sends a strong message that drivers should be attentive to the road, and those around them at all times,” Lynch said.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has signed off on HB 2377, which bans texting for drivers and also limits use of cell phones to adult motorists, only if they employ hands-free attachments.

The New Hampshire anti-texting measure, House Bill 34, reads specifically: “A person operating a moving motor vehicle who writes a text message or uses 2 hands to type on or operate an electronic or telecommunications device, is guilty of a violation.” That offense brings a fine of $100.

Rep. Richard Drisko, R-Hollis, saw the amended version of his HB 34 approved by the House on March 24, 2009, on a 222-137 vote. The text messaging safety measure advanced to the Senate, where it was approved by the Transportation Committee in a 5-0 vote on May 14 and then by the full New Hampshire Senate on May 20.

Read more about New Hampshire text messaging and cell phone laws.

Nationwide ban on texting proposed

States would be required to prohibit text messaging for all drivers or face a loss of a quarter of their federal highway money, under a U.S. Senate bill introduced by four Democrats.

Fourteen states have outlawed text messaging by drivers so far. The so-called ALERT Act gives the other states two years to enact bans on texting for all drivers, with the clock ticking once the federal Transportation Department issues guidelines.

The state bans would have to cover all drivers of motor vehicles — including truckers and school bus drivers — as well as operators of mass transit systems.

“The legislation will send an important message to drivers across the country: Get your hands off the cell phone and back on the wheel,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. “When drivers have their eyes on their cell phones instead of the road, the results can be dangerous and even deadly.”

Schumer (pictured) officially announced the plan Wednesday. He said states that fail to act by the deadline could regain their federal funding once they ban texting and driving.

The other senators are Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana; and Kay Hagan, D-North Carolina.

They pointed to the Virginia Tech text messaging study released a day before that indicated professional truck drivers were 23 times more likely to get into crashes while texting. Introduction of the bill also follows revelations that the federal government concealed the dangers of cell phone use in vehicles.

The federal government cannot outright ban texting while driving because highway issues are in the states’ jurisdiction. The act was patterned after the federal effort on drinking ages.

Schumer, ironically, is from New York, a state that led the way in handheld cell phone legislation for drivers, but whose legislators delayed and resisted a popular texting ban until earlier this summer.

ALERT stands for the Avoiding Life Endangering and Reckless Texting By Drivers Act.

Trucks, texting a deadly mix

A study of professional truckers indicates that even pros are severely handicapped while text messaging behind the wheel.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s study found that the truckers were 23 times more likely to get in a wreck while texting. The researchers placed video cameras in the cabs of long-haul trucks over a year and a half period. About 100 truck drivers participated.

In the collisions recorded by the cameras, drivers typically looked at their text messaging devices for five seconds before the accident, the New York Times said in reporting on the Virginia Tech texting study.

The video cameras were focused on drivers’ faces in the seconds before a crash or a near-miss.

Researchers said the danger of crashing while texting applies to all drivers, since they did not find texting behaviors out of the ordinary among the professional truck drivers. The institute is also studying teenagers who text while driving, and the results seem in line with the trucker data.

The estimate that drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to crash is significantly higher than other studies have reported.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration helped pay for the texting and trucking study.

Virginia Tech and the University of Utah are among the most active research operations looking at various forms of distracted driving.

A texting ban in N.Y., finally

New York’s Senate has approved a ban on text messaging for all drivers, in a vote that was long in coming for a state that was one of the pioneers of cell phone safety behind the wheel.

The Senate vote — which applied to larger legislation concerning teenage driving laws — was 57-1. The state Assembly’s vote of June 17 was unanimous.

The New York ban on text messaging by motorists is expected to take effect on Nov. 1, assuming Gov. David Paterson signs it, as expected. The bill originated with his motor vehicle department.

The texting legislation had been in limbo due to the state Senate’s long power struggle, resolved in recent days. It calls for fines of $150.

Under the bill, banned activities related to handheld electronic devices include reading or sending text messages, sending or receiving images, surfing the Net and playing video games.

Because of the years-long inaction on text messaging, counties across New York State had enacted or considered texting bans of their own. The statewide prohibition will supersede these regional New York laws against texting and driving. (View the New York local texting laws.)

Texting by teenage drivers has been a hot-button issue in New York for several years, since the highway deaths of five teenage girls from the Rochester, N.Y., area. Investigators found that the driver was text messaging just before the girls’ SUV collided with a truck.

Ironically, the successful texting and driving legislation was pushed through by Assembly transportation chief David Gantt, D-Rochester, who has been widely blamed for playing politics with the safety issue.

New York has enforced a statewide ban on drivers’ use of handheld cell phones since 2001.

A close shave with Ontario cell phone ban

Ontario’s government ombudsman is taking heat for distracted driving — because he was busy making a tattle-tale video of an extreme case of distracted driving.

Andre Martin, the province watchdog, noticed a driver ahead of him using an electric razor to shave his head. Martin whipped out his iPhone and made a video of the outrage, posting it as an example of how motorists will do just about anything behind a wheel, the Toronto Sun reported. Martin was stopped at a light at the time.

Unfortunately for Martin, his actions were in violation of the Ontario’s new hands-free law, at least in theory. The ban on using cell phones, cameras and texting devices has been approved but the cops won’t be writing tickets until fall.

The Ontario Safety League president wasn’t a fan of Martin’s civic vigilance. “He may want to review his protocols going forward,” he told the Sun.

“If this had occurred when the new law was in, there would have been two offenders.”

Other behaviors cited in the new law are emailing, watching DVDs, fooling with MP3 players and video gaming. No mention of head-buzzing, yet.

Phoning in other drivers’ antics appears to be a popular pastime in Ontario, with a third of impaired-motorist reports coming from fellow citizens.

The tattlers will be plenty busy in the fall, as the ban on handheld cell phones and texting goes into effect.