William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

Iowa's ban on texting while driving would be toughened under a bill passed Wednesday night by the Iowa Senate.

Under current Iowa law, texting is prohibited by drivers, but the Iowa State Patrol wrote fewer than 200 citations for the offense last year. Public safety officials said officers are hampered by the current statute because motorists can be ticketed for texting while driving only if they commit another offense, such as speeding or running a red light.

Senate File 234 would make texting while driving a primary offense instead of a secondary offense. The change would allow law officers to issue a citation if they simply observe a driver texting behind the wheel, even if there is no other violation.

The bill was amended Wednesday night to expand the texting prohibition to also ban the use of social media, browsing Internet sites and playing electronic games. The final version was approved on a 43-6 vote, sending the measure to the Iowa House for consideration.

"This is a step in the right direction, and this is a step that Iowans are unified on," said Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, who supported the bill.

Gov. Terry Branstad has said he supports even stronger legislation that would only permit mobile phone use by motorists who are using hands-free electronic devices. The state has to take distracted driving more seriously after having the state's traffic death toll rise from 320 in 2015 to 403 fatalities in 2016, he said.

But Sen. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point, the bill's floor manager, said that while he favors a stronger approach, he believes the measure approved Wednesday night is the only legislation that appears possible of winning approval at this point.

"I am sure we haven't seen the last of this issue," Breitbach added. He noted that commercial truck drivers are already required to operate only with hands-free devices.