Two bills currently being considered by the state legislature would establish Pennsylvania's first distracted driving laws. Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states that have not passed laws banning hand-held cell phone use, texting while driving or both.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has identified distracted driving as one of the biggest threats to road users today. Visual, manual and cognitive distractions negatively affect a driver's ability to safely operate a vehicle, and recent studies have determined that driving while distracted is equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08-the legal limit-and often has the same dire consequences.
A recent AAA survey found that 88 percent of participants consider other drivers texting to be a serious threat to their safety. Indeed, 20 percent of all injury-causing crashes in 2009 were attributed to distracted driving . That same year, almost 1,000 people lost their lives in crashes in which cell phone use was reported, and the percentage of drivers who were distracted at the onset of a fatal crash increased from seven percent in 2005 to 11 percent in 2009.
These startling statistics have prompted the Pennsylvania legislature to draft the state's first distracted driving laws. The Senate has already passed its bill, which is now up for consideration in the House. The bill would make hand-held cell phone use a secondary offense, meaning that another moving or traffic violation would need to occur before an officer could cite a driver for cell phone use. The legislation would additionally make texting while driving a primary offense, meaning that law enforcement could cite an offender for this act alone. The bill would also ban e-mail and Internet use while driving, as well as all cell phone use for non-experienced drivers. Violators of the law would face a fine of $100.
The House has drafted its own distracted driving legislation, but its scope goes beyond cell phone use to include other visual, manual or cognitive distractions like eating or reading while driving. The bill would make distracted driving a secondary offense that would carry a $50 fine.
Hopefully, the Pennsylvania legislature will come to consensus on its first distracted driving law and help the state's traffic laws reflect the current threats to road users and bring them up to par with neighboring states'. In the meantime, Pennsylvanians remain at risk for an accident, every time they come near a distracted motorist. If you or a loved one have been injured in a crash involving a distracted driver, please contact an experienced personal injury attorney.
