Minnesota: Cell phone laws, legislation
Last updated: August 23, 2011 · Print this report · Comment
Distracted driving updates:Distracted driving is a factor in one out of four vehicle crashes in Minnesota, State Police say. In 2010, there were 411 traffic deaths overall, the lowest number since the 1940s.
No distracted driving legislation found success in 2011 or 2010. A texting ban became law in 2008, but State Police complain it is “a very difficult law to enforce.”
The Legislature returns Jan. 24, 2012.
Current prohibitions:
- Text messaging and Internet use outlawed for all drivers.
- Drivers under the age of 18 with learner’s permits or intermediate licenses are prohibited from using cell phones while driving.
2011 distracted driving legislation:
Senate Bill 18: Would ban use of cell phones by all drivers on Minnesota roads and highways. No exception for hands-free operation. (Wigel)
House Bill 85: Mandates a one-year license suspension for drivers who cause a death by operating a vehicle “carelessly or heedlessly in disregard of the rights or safety of others.” (Murrow)
HB 68: Adds “careless driving resulting in death” section to statutes as a gross midemeanor. Approved by the House Public Safety committee on Jan. 31. (Garofalo)
Distracted driving notes:
State Rep. Frank Hornstein, D-Minneapolis, says a bill is being crafted for 2011 that would toughen the state’s distracted driving law. Minnesota was the third state to approve a ban on text messaging and driving. That law went into effect Aug. 1, 2008. A violation is a petty misdemeanor.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota spoke at the Second Distracted Driving Summit in September, noting “no text message is worth dying for.” Klobuchar is a cosponsor of the Distracted Driving Prevention Act and supports the ALERT Drivers Act, both of which push states to adopt traffic laws against text messaging and handheld cell phone use.
A new state group called Pay Attention and Drive is collecting stories from survivors of distracted driving accidents.
Between 2006 and 2008, there were 60,000 accidents in Minnesota blamed on distracted driving. About 200 lives were lost. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says distracted driving kills 70 people a year and injures another 350. Distracted driving contributes to one in four accidents statewide, resulting in about 70 deaths a year, the department reports.
The Department of Public Safety reported that 930 citations have been written statewide since the August 2008 enactment of the Minnesota text messaging and driving ban (period ending July 2010). In 2009, only 390 tickets were handed out.
Minnesota police conducted a statewide distracted driving crackdown for the second anniversary of the texting and driving ban’s enactment on Aug. 5, 2010. In September, Ramsey County (St. Paul) conducted a text messaging sweep.
The House and Senate transportation committees on March 3 held a joint hearing on cell phone use by drivers. Dave Teater of the National Safety Council and the activist group Focus Driven told how his son was killed by a driver chatting on a mobile phone. Opposing a ban on handheld cell phone use by adults were Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The Verizon spokesman suggested that drivers “if possible suspend the call in heavy traffic.”
Rep. Sandra Masin, D-Eagan, is the chief author of HB 2351.
Mike Jaros, D-Deluth, has sought a complete ban on drivers using cell phones. His stepson was in a vehicle that was rammed by a cell-phoning driver, but survived.
Katherine Burke Moore, deputy director of the Office of Traffic Safety, told the Star Tribune: “We forget that driving is already a multi-tasking activity. Even when we do it every day, we’re checking mirrors, scanning around the car, and watching for brake lights. Any other distraction is unsafe.”
The Department of Public Safety and AAA (Minnesota/Iowa) ran a competition in which teenagers made television PSAs that educate viewers about the dangers of texting while driving. The winning entry was titled “Moms, Alcohol and Texting.”
2010 legislation (dead):
HB 1339: Would outlaw use of handheld cell phones by drivers. School bus drivers and those with instruction permits not allowed to use cell phones at all. Companion to SB 593, below. (Ruud)
SB 593: Seeks to outlaw use of cell phones by drivers, unless a hands-free device is employed. Bans all cell phone use by drivers with instruction permits. Would outlaw use of cell phones by school bus drivers. Companion to HB 1339, above. Approved by the Senate Transportation Committee on March 11 and advanced to a second reading.(Bonoff)
Absolutely moronic! People are often most productive in their car, using their cell phone. What’s next? Are they going to outlaw eating, drinking, and speaking to another vehicle occupant? How about kids? Kids are probably the biggest distraction possible for a driver. How about we mandate muzzles and hand and foot restraints for children riding in a vehicle? The stupidity of that last proposal pales in comparison to the stupidity of banning cell phone use for those millions of individuals who talk and drive responsibly every day.
Best bill ever! Our youth director just put the church van into the ditch near Tettegouch State Park with 8 kids in it because she was texting!!! Livid does not even come close to how I feel right now. What could possibly be more important than the lives of our kids?
What a nightmare. A few states have strict laws that make anyone transporting people (bus, van, rail) think twice about texting. Thanks for checking in, Keldi.
Just the other day, I had to make a superhuman maneuver to avoid a young gal that was tooling along at about 72 mph and had her gaze glued on her cell phone. She was paying ZERO attention to road and just wandered into my lane and gave me the “squeeze play” and I had to avoid not only her, but the car that was already in the lane that she shoved me into.
My million dollar idea is some sort of “jamming mechanism” that does not allow a cell phone to work from the driver’s location. Just some sort of electronic signal that creates a “no cell phone zone” within the car itself!
I am not a techie, so I don’t know what this would involve, but, if the jammer made it so a cell phone doesn’t even work from the driver’s side, people would cease driving and texting.
I’ve been writing a paper in my College Writing class about Distracted Driving. I think it’s a HUGE topic that people should think about EVERY time they go onto the road. Many things bother me about texting and driving, but the same goes out to underage people talking on the phone. No matter who you are, you think you’re “good” at doing it. It’s not the idea that you are gonna kill or hurt someone, but also the idea that someone else could swerve over into you while you’re distracted. Everyone should put there own little rules out to kids about distarcted driving. Maybe it will save a life or 2.
To me if anyone uses there phone should get a $ 4,000.00 fine… People old or young can not drive and talk on the phone. I have been cut off so many times or a driver is all over the road, I have had people drive right straight to me and I am the one who has to get out of there way, I have seen people not stop at stop signs or lights, I have seen people go through the flashing lights on a school BUS. so I say NO ONE BUT NO ONE should be on the phone.. If I can pull to the side to use my cellphone so should everyone else. If anyone has a accident because of the cell phone they should have to pay a LARGE fine and insurance should go up big time!!!!! I know I am sick of these bad drivers and there phones!!!!!
Please make a distinction between hands-free devices that are built into the vehicle and accessories that are slapped onto a phone in order to call it hands-free. In my car I press a single large button to place or receive a call that is no less of a distraction than pressing a radio station preset button. My eyes are still down the road and hands are at ten and two. Cell phone accessories may still require the user to fiddle with the phone to some degree and are loosely placed in the vehicle and not installed in a stationary location. Devices built into the vehicle, such as in NAV systems or bluetooth integration, do not deserve to be banned.
A careless driver is a careless driver whether on cell phone or not. The should also ban tight pants because people who wear tight pants may not be able to move their legs free on pedals. I think, this law will not stop accidents. Before the existence of cell phone, there were accidents. I think this is not freedom…it is living in chains. People in third world countries have more freedom than us. We only make noise about freedom while people in Africa and Asia enjoy the damn freedom.
Our elected officials propose and pass laws that continue to infringe upon our freedoms. Constitutional rights are being tossed aside at an exponential rate in America. We will soon get to a place where the only right we have is the right to remain silent and the only freedom we have is to go to work and have the government redistribute our earnings to ensure the continued growth of Government. You can’t legislate and it is not the job of government to attempt to legislate “common sense”.
Interestingly enough, I got ticketed for using my cell phone while driving. I pulled over onto a McDonalds parking lot and excercised my right to remain silent while the trooper began to write my ticket. A woman nicely dressed but wearing a very short skirt walked across the parking lot towards her car when I heard a crash. Two drivers , having been distracted by this attractive woman in her skirt and heels had hit each other head on. Obviously in a bit of a hurry to get out of the parking lot now congested by the trooper issuing my ticket and the two car accident the woman was a bit fast heading off the lot and onto the street. At the end of the driveway as she attempted to apply her brakes the 4 inch heel of her shoe snagged the carpet of her car and she was t-boned by a driver who didn’t see her. It was reported that the other driver was not on a cell phone but had one hand on a double cheesburger purchased at the Burger King only a block away.
Although no one had been seriously injured I could hear the siren of the Ambulance racing towards the McDonalds lot which by now began to look more like a demolition derby. Well sure enough, as the ambulance approached the lot another vehicle with a bitchin sound system entered the intersection under a full green light. Unfortunately, not being able to hear the siren of the ambulance the four young men in the vehicle with the bitchin sound system were plowed over by the ambulance. Having completed my ticket the officer handed it to me for my signature. I signed it as the officer told me to remember that cell phone use while driving was dangerous.
I think this law is just another infringement on our rights of freedom. If someone takes the risk of talking on the cell phone and gets into an accident and injury’s someone than they should pay. This is just another example of government taking something that some people can not and should not do and wrecking it for others that are able to talk and drive at the same time or do pull over and talk on the cell phone. I have had people do stupid things in front of me on the highway and some where on the cell phone and some where just driving along. Lets face the simple truth, there are people out there that should have never been allowed to drive. That is why government set up drivers testing stations, so that only qualified and safe drivers where on the road. WOW obviously that worked well. This is just one more way for them to control our daily lives and make money, as if taking the crap out of us isn’t enough.
Anyone who says they can carry on a cell phone conversation while driving a motor vehicle and not be distracted is being dishonest with themselves.