Law enforcement agencies prepare for texting ban

House Bill 62, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbot on June 6 and set to go into effect Sept. 1, will effectively ban drivers from texting while a vehicle is in motion but allow them to read or text messages if the vehicle is stopped at, for instance, a stop light.

Many who support HB 62 feel it will help reduce deaths and accidents caused by distracted drivers.

The bill met with varying degrees of opposition, most notably from state Sen. Larry Taylor of Friendswood, who has gone on record questioning whether such legislation could potentially leave room for errors in law enforcement judgment.

Taylor, who tried to amend the bill to require law enforcement to provide evidence that an offense occurred, argued this past legislative session that the bill does not include other potential distractions while driving. He said that police would have a hard time determining whether a driver is texting or using a GPS app, which is not an offense.

After passage of the bill, Taylor, whose Senate District 11 includes portions of Brazoria, Galveston and Harris counties, continued to voice reservations.



"Many people have been injured or killed due to texting while driving, and I am sensitive to those issues," he said. "But the bill that was passed is unenforceable. For example, you can use your phone for everything but communicating. You can read a novel on your phone. You can use your GPS or navigation apps or listen to music on your phone. But, if you use your phone for texting, you're illegal."

Drivers using cell phones for something other than texting might wind up in municipal court explaining to a judge they were not communicating on their cell phone when cited, he said.

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether a pickup driver's texting and drug use contributed to a head-on collision with a church bus in March 29 that killed its driver and 12 passengers about 75 miles west of San Antonio.

The crash remains under investigation. Families of those killed in the accident have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver, Jack Dillon Young, 20. The suit by the son of one of the victims included a plea for the state to ban texting while driving

Language in a previous iteration of the bill banned using handheld devices while a vehicle was in motion, but following concerns raised by members of the House, was changed to leave room for exemptions - such as making it legal to use phones to control a stereo system or to access navigation programs.

Harris County Sheriff's Office, which patrols part of the Friendswood area, will prepare for the rollout of the bill by putting deputies through training, office spokesman Jason Spencer said.

"We will partner with our patrol department between now and then to ensure our deputies know what this law change means and what it does not mean," Spencer said.

The legislation might actually make things clearer for motorists, who previously could be under different laws regarding texting depending on where they were, he said.

"Before," Spencer said, "we had some municipalities who had a ban on texting while driving and some who did not - it was a very patchwork system. People driving around in their vehicles between municipalities basically had to pay attention to where they were and then know the laws of each municipality to determine if texting while the vehicle was in motion was legal or not. As of Sept. 1, none of that matters - people won't be able to be texting while driving anywhere in the state of Texas."

Brazoria County Sheriff's Office Lt. Varon Snelgrove said that his county, which borders Friendswood to the east, now currently pull people over for texting and driving, but once the ordinance goes through, the department will work to enforce the law.

"As far as determining who is texting and who is using their phone for other things," Snelgrove said, "we'll just have to examine each incident on a case by case basis."

While the Harris County Sheriff's Office hasn't developed an official stance regarding the ban, Spencer said that there are decided benefits to the legislation.

"We're certainly not opposed to the ban," he said. "We see plenty of instances where distracted driving or texting while driving is the direct cause of an accident.

"Having people off their handheld devices while they're driving has the potential to other drivers safe, and that's ultimately what we want to see. We have the safety of our citizens at the forefront of our minds."

Snelgrove echoed this sentiment.

"I think it's a great idea," he said. "We see people get into accidents because of texting and driving. In fact, I think that's a major contributing factor in accidents."

Deer Park's city council passed an ordinance in the summer of 2015 that bans use of any wireless communication device while driving for texting, talking, checking emails and internet searching. The ordinance includes exemptions for hands-free devices like Bluetooth or mounted GPS navigation devices.

The specifications included in the Deer Park model make the ordinance more enforceable, Deer Park police Lt. Franklin Hart said.

"What that does is it gives the officers the ability to enforce it because if a cell phone is in your hand we can't prove what you're doing on it," he said. "We just know that if it's in your hand it is a violation of this ordinance."

Drivers had been given a grace period, but now could face a fine up to $200 caught with a device in hand.

The ordinance went into effect in the fall of 2015 and according to Hart, the results so far have been encouraging.

"Overall the response from residents has been very positive," he said. "Ultimately, it's for everybody's safety when they're on the road. A lot of drivers acknowledge that to be a problem."

Hart said hard it is to determine the exact number of accidents caused by texting behind the wheel because often people don't like to admit doing it.

With just a little over a year worth of data, Hart said it is too soon to determine how drivers' behavior has changed because of the ordinance.

According to Hart, in accidents caused by failure to control speed, stop sign and traffic light violations, it is often noted in the report that driver inattention was a factor.

"Maybe not every accident was related to driver inattention, but a certain percentage of them surely are, and if we attack that end of it - the reasons for driver inattention - that number will theoretically reduce," he said.

For those who say such ordinances are an infringement on personal behavior, Hart said public safety is at the heart of such legislation.

"Generally the laws in society - whether they be an ordinance or state law - is not about restricting people from doing what they want, but to protect everybody as a whole," Hart said.

"The roadways are so congested nowadays - with both vehicular and pedestrian traffic - that it just takes a second to make decision that could cost someone their life. Personal safety outweighs somebody's right to text (while driving)."