West Virginia: Cell phone laws, legislation
Last updated: February 4, 2010 · Print this report
Cell phone, texting news: The 2010 West Virginia Legislature will consider bans on text messaging and the use of handheld cell phones while driving. A key bill emerged from an Interim Joint Committee in December 2009. Most bills regarding texting call for secondary enforcement. House members reportedly want the 2010 legislation to emerge from the Senate.
Current prohibitions:
Drivers with learner’s permits or intermediate licenses are prohibited from using cell phones while driving (primary offense).
School bus drivers may not use cell phones while operating the vehicles.
Cell phone, texting legislation (2010)
An Interim Joint Committee on Roads and Transportation has developed HB 4013 for the 2010 session that would ban both text messaging and handheld phone use for drivers. In a compromise, the bill calls for texting while driving to be a primary offense, but use of a handheld cell phone would be a secondary offense. Meaning a law officer could pull over a driver solely for text messaging, but would need another reason to stop a violator talking on a cell phone. The compromise emerged from the committee on Dec. 9 after a good deal of debate.
Bill author Delegate Nancy Guthrie, D-Kanawha, wanted primary enforcement for both offenses, but said she was “realistic enough to know that this is a start.” Guthrie saw her bill on texting and cell phoning die on the last night of the 2009 regular session.
Earlier this fall, Delegate Guthrie told HandsFreeInfo.com: “The question before the committee is whether or not to reintroduce last year’s legislation or strip out restrictions on cell phone use and only try to pass a bill restricting texting.” She called the idea of stripping out cell phone restrictions “stunning.” The secondary enforcement provision of the new bill was a compromise that kept the handheld cell phone ban alive.
Under the bill, text messaging would bring fines of $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second and $200 after that. Cell phone penalties would be $25, $50 and $75.
Gov. Joe Manchin says he supports a ban on driving and text messaging on West Virginia roads and highways. Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe Miller lobbied for the draft legislation, noting that cell phone-related deaths fell by hundreds in California after its ban was enacted.
HB 4013: Would ban drivers from text messaging and the use of handheld cell phones, meaning hands-free accessories
HB 2995: Would prohibit text messaging while driving. Fines $100/$200/$500. (Eldridge)
HB 2141: Would prohibit drivers under age 18 with level 1 and 2 licenses from using all wireless communications devices. Secondary enforcement. Fines $25/$50/$75. (Romine)
West Virginia Senate Bill 438: Would make text messaging while driving a primary offense and use of a handheld cell phone a secondary offense. Fines for texting $50/$100/$200. Fnes for using cell phones without a hands-free device $25/$50/$75. No points. Similar to HB 4013, above. (Unger)
SB 167: Seeks to prohibit all drivers from texting while driving. Secondary enforcement. Fines up to $100. Up to 3 points. (Unger)
SB 52: Would outlaw use of cell phones while driving unless a hands-free attachment is employed. Fines $100/$200/$500 no points. (Guills-Foster)
SB 367: Seeks to outlaw use of “additional technology” for handheld devices that provide access to digital media content such as text messages, e-mail, the Internet and games. Fines $100/$250/$500. (Minard)
2010 legislation notes
“I think House members, having passed legislation last year to curb texting and cell phone use while driving, will be very receptive to a similar bill emerging from the Senate,” House Speaker Rick Thompson told the Herald-Dispatch. “I will be interested to see exactly what the Senate produces.”
Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, sponsor of two distracted driving bills, noted: “There are folks who are advocating the ban of cell phones altogether in use on the roads,” Unger said. “We’ll see what comes out of committee. … I think (SB 438) has a pretty good shot at passing.”
“Even Oprah is pounding on this,” Unger said of distracted driving laws.
The 2009 legislation that was approved by the House failed to get through the Senate because of an unrelated last-minute amendment.
2009 cell phone, texting legislation:
HB 2621: Would have outlawed use of a wireless handheld communications device unless a hands-free accessory is attached. Included cell phones and text messaging devices. Versions were approved by the West Virginia House on March 27, 2009, and by the Senate on April 9, but died on the final night of the session due to an unrelated amendment tacked on by a senator.
HB 2995: Would prohibit text messaging while driving. Fines $100/$200/$500. (Similar to SB 131) Note HB 1876 above. Note: Carried over to 2010 session.
SB 131: Would prohibit drivers from using cell phones on West Virginia roads unless a hands-free device is employed, such as a headset or speaker system that does not require the use of hands.
2009 legislation notes:
State Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, plans to introduce legislation in 2010 that would ban text messaging and use of handheld cell phones while operating a motor vehicle in West Virginia. (Update: SB 52, above.) He supported similar legislation in 2009.
The 2009 legislation that was approved by the House was sunk in the Senate by a last-minute amendment regarding cell phone tower placements. “”It was just one of those thoughtless amendments that a member put in without considering all the work the three committees had put into the bill,” Delegate Guthrie said.
2009′s anti-text messaging bill HB 2995 was introduced in mid-March by Delegate Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln. It calls for secondary enforcement, meaning drivers could not be pulled over solely for text messaging or using handheld cell phones. The fine will be $25 with no driver’s license points or court costs.
Under SB 131 and HB 2995, fines would start at $100 and increase to $500 with three violations. No points would be assessed on the West Virginia driver’s license. Under HB 2621, fines would be capped at $25 with no points.
Gov. Joe Manchin proposed a ban on text messaging while driving, in response to the Los Angeles commuter train crash. “Texting, cell phones, all this,” Manchin told the Charleston Daily Mail. “I think it’s come to the point now that we see how distractive they are.”
Manchin later told the Register-Herald: “Some legislators asked me my opinion on (West Virginia cell phone and texting legislation). “It makes sense to me. I’m the one who is as guilty as anybody.”
Previous cell phone, texting legislation
In the winter 2008 session, the House narrowly approved a bill that would have made using a cell phone while driving a secondary offense, but it died in the Senate. Kanawha County Delegate Nancy Peoples’ cell-phone legislation inspired plenty of public debate. (HB 4047: Would require drivers to use hands-free devices while making cell phone calls. Drivers’ use of text-messaging devices would be prohibited. School bus drivers would be prohibited from using cell phones.)
“The facts are indisputable. Distracted driving puts all of us in danger,” Peoples wrote on her blog. “This legislation will give us a means to begin gathering data on how many accidents result from drivers who become distracted while using cell phones.”
Sen. Jeffrey Kessler, head of the Judiciary Committee, joined other lawmakers in the 2008 session seeking a ban on texting while driving.
The school bus driver ban on cell phone use was enacted in September 2008 by the state Board of Education.
If cell phone usage while driving is a distraction an needs to be banned then these morons should also ban talking to passangers, eating an drinking, radios, an most of all bill boards
I agree that there should be bans on cell phone use while driving. This includes text messaging and especially talking and any other cell phone use while driving. The act of it is very distracting. My son and his wife almost died in a car crash as a result of the other driver talking on the cell phone while driving. My daughter-in-law spent seven weeks in the hospital, six surgeries, about a year and a half of hard core therapies, had to learn to walk, talk, and use her brain again. She is now disabled. As for my son, he suffers from migraine headaches everyday to say the least. So please, think before using the cell phone while driving. We need to ban cell phone use while driving.
I’m sorry, but there have been too many situations where people using cell phones while driving have caused accidents, nearly hit pedestrians, etc. Using the cell phone to talk shouldn’t be a secondary offense it needs to be a primary offense. its the only way to stop it…. hands free head sets are not expensive and can easily be used AND allow you to keep both hands on the wheel where they belong