Bills seek ban on texting while driving

By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Call it the Oprah factor.

A day after talk show queen Oprah Winfrey focused on the dangers of texting while driving, two members of the Georgia House of Representatives introduced bills that would ban the practice.

“Don’t tempt fate,” said Rep. Amos Amerson (R-Dahlonega), quoting Winfrey. “That text or call can wait.”

Amerson and Rep. Allen Peake (R-Bibb County) introduced similar bills that will likely merge. Under Peake’s bill, HB 938, anyone found guilty of writing, sending or reading a text message while driving would be fined $50 to $100 and have two points placed on his driver's license. Amerson’s bill would set the fine at $300.

“Texting while driving is a rising problem among teenagers and adults and a leading cause of traffic accidents,” Peake said. “When someone texts while driving they are endangering their own lives, as well as all other drivers and pedestrians they may pass. This legislation saves lives.”

Both Peake and Amerson said they know from their own experience. Amerson said that the grandson of one of his constituents recently died in a head-on collision. When police checked his cellphone, they found he had sent six text messages between the time he got in his car and the accident.

Peake said he “used to text like crazy,” once passing a driver who got his legislative license plate and later called to complain.

“I was a terrible example to the state and to my three kids. I had to make changes before I hurt myself or someone else,” Peake said. “I can remember driving three or four miles and having no idea what I had just done because of texting.”

Kevin W. Bakewell, senior vice president of the AAA Auto Club South, tried to put that in context: Someone driving 70 mph, he travels 100 feet per second. While writing just a three-second text message, a driver can go the length of a football field without looking at the road.

“And that is scary,” Bakewell said, adding that the ban on texting is AAA’s top legislative priority. “There is no instance where taking your hands off the wheel, where taking your mind and eyes off the road, is safe. The sooner this becomes a law, the better.”

If either bill passes, Georgia would join 19 other states -- including North Carolina and Tennessee -- in banning texting while driving.

Over on the Senate side, Bill Heath (R-Bremen) has introduced a bill, SB 306, that would allow drivers to freely use Bluetooth-type devices.

Heath said that across the state, some drivers have been ticketed for using Bluetooth devices by officers who were following an old code that banned the practice except for motorcycle riders.