St. Louis Injury Law Journal : St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Aaron Farmer Law Firm : Missouri, Jefferson County

The Illinois State Legislature recently made it illegal to text message while driving. A person may not operate a motor vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device to compose, send, or read an electronic message. HB71 becomes effective July 1, 2009. The bill makes texting a moving violation under the traffic code, and drivers caught texting while driving a third time can lose their license and be sentencing to up to 30 days in jail. ``It’s a huge distraction and we need to stop it,’’ the sponsor, state Rep. John D’Amico, D-Chicago, said in floor debate. ``When you’re text messaging (while driving), you’re taking the lives of others into your hands.’’

Cell phone use while driving has become a hot topic throughout the country over the past few years. Missouri currently has three measures proposed that would make various uses of cell phones a traffic violation. Proponents of the ban on cell phone use often cite public safety concerns related to the increase in traffic deaths caused by cell phone use. The movement continues to create momentum even though other driving distractions such as reading a book, inattention, singing, and dancing remain unregulated.

If Missouri passes restrictions on cell phone use it will be interesting how the new law will be enforced. Will officers begin checking the call/text log of phones present in every car they stop for routine traffic violations? Will police officer’s be able to stop vehicles because they see a cell phone in use? Will the officers start using this as justification to stop certain types of vehicles/persons they would not otherwise be able to detain? This continues to be an interesting topic.
 

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After two years of fruitless attempts, the movement to outlaw hand-held use of cell phones on Missouri roads is begging to pick up momentum. Five bills were filed in the General Assembly that would impose a $20 first-time fine and a $50 fine each time thereafter for those caught talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device, as well as for text messaging while the vehicle is in drive. Many observers believe the pair of fatal high-profile cell phone related traffic accidents in the past year, has brought this issue front and center.

In July of last year, news reports stated that truck driver Jeffrey R. Knight was distracted by a text message he was reading when he drove his tractor-trailer into 10 cars backed up on Interstate 64 near Chesterfield, killing three people and injuring 15 more. He was not charged with a crime.

A toddler died in a separate incident on Jan. 3 in Franklin County. According to news reports at the time, the child and his father were on an all-terrain vehicle when the father looked down to check a text message. The father fell off, but the toddler remained aboard as the out-of-control vehicle careened into a tree.

"Between those situations and just watching people text and watching how people are distracted by cell phones when they don't have both their hands on the wheel, it just kind of drives me crazy," Representative Joe Fallert said. "I know we can't legislate everything, but we can raise awareness that it is not safe."

Five states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands have mandated hands-free cell phone usage while operating a motor vehicle, and seven states and D.C. have banned text messaging while driving.

At least eight different studies demonstrate that cell phone use impairs driving. Recently, the National Safety County (NSC) called for states to ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones while driving. Among those backing the proposal are members of the law enforcement community. “We cannot come out and support any specific legislation but we are certainly for any type of legislation that promotes safety on our highways,” said Sgt. Brent Bernhardt, communications officer for the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Troop B. “When you look at all the traffic crashes that we investigate, most traffic crashes are caused by what we term ‘inattention.’ Anytime that you perform any task while you’re driving, even as minor as it may seen and as easy as it might seem on its own, whether it’s talking on a cell phone, whether it’s looking for a CD to put in your CD player, reading a map, or bending down to pick up something that’s dropped on the floor, all those simple things can be an unsafe driving practice. Our thought is we want to do everything we can to make sure that people are paying attention when they’re driving.”

A joint survey conducted by AAA and Seventeen magazine of 1,000 teenagers in 2007 showed 61 percent admitted to risky driving habits. Of those, about half said they sent text messages and talked on cell phones.

If this legislative initiative passes it would strengthen the value of evidence that cell phone usage contributed to an auto collision. One of the elements that must be proved to be successful in a car accident case is breach of duty. One of the ways this may be proved is through “negligence per se” which means a defendant violated a statute that was designed to protect the injured party from being hurt in a car accident. Without the statute, proof that cell phone use caused an accident may only be considered as a factor when determining whether the defendant exposed the injured party to an unreasonable harm. This legislation would make breach of duty virtually automatic when cell phone use causes an accident.
 

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Recent attempts to ban cell phone usage while driving by the City of Town and Country, Missouri, have failed.  The Aldermanic President of Town and Country proclaimed cell phone use while driving a “statewide problem” that should be addressed by the Legislature.  This issue began boiling oven amidst allegations of cell phone usage causing a fatal accident on Highway 40 in the St. Louis suburb.  See the recent St. Louis Post Dispatch article covering the story. The Alderman believed enforcement would be a major problem for implementing a ban.  This reasoning seems weak as we already have law enforcement patrolling our streets.  Most drivers can tell when someone is driving while using a cell phone, without any special training.  Many times, these drivers appear to be driving while intoxicated due to the distraction of their conversation.  Surely a Town and Country police officer can also detect the signs of this type of driving.  Further, the call or text log on most phones could be checked to ensure they had been in use. 

Problems enforcing a cell phone ban seems more like an excuse than a reason. The only thing keeping us from making our roads safe is our society’s obsession with chatting on the phone while driving. Public safety is not an area in which we should defer to convenience. Numerous studies have linked cell phone use to car accidents. Let’s wise up and stop this epidemic.

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