Missouri, Montana are final states to implement distracted driving legal guidelines
Max Herrick pulled over on the interstate close to Harrisonville, Missouri, on a spring evening in 2020 to supply antifreeze to a girl whose automobile had overheated.
He had misplaced a grandson to an overdose simply hours earlier than, however aiding stranded motorists was second nature to the 73-year-old retired faculty custodian, who remembered hundreds of scholars’ names and usually introduced meals pantry donations to a retirement group.
“He at all times was there to assist individuals,” mentioned his son Bobby Herrick, who was within the automobile with him that evening.
Simply moments later, a truck driver attempting to textual content his spouse an image of the hand sanitizer he had bought swerved onto the shoulder and plowed into the autos, in keeping with courtroom and crash information. Whereas the truck driver was not injured and the lady and Bobby Herrick recovered from their accidents, Max Herrick grew to become considered one of not less than 382 individuals who died in Missouri crashes involving a distracted driver from 2017 by means of 2021, in keeping with the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Security.
Regardless of such tragedies, Missouri is considered one of two states — the opposite is Montana — that don’t prohibit all drivers from textual content messaging whereas working autos. (Missouri has such a regulation for individuals 21 and beneath.)
Earlier than this yr, Missouri state lawmakers from each events had proposed greater than 80 payments since 2010 with various ranges of restrictions on cellphone use and driving. Comparable laws has been proposed in Montana, too. In each states, such payments have faltered, largely as a result of Republican opponents say they don’t suppose the legal guidelines work and are simply one other infringement on individuals’s civil liberties.
However, Missouri Republicans and Democrats launched not less than seven payments this session regarding hand-held cellphone use whereas driving — and street security advocates suppose such laws has a greater probability of passing this yr. Montana, in the meantime, has a invoice in search of to dam localities’ distracted driving legal guidelines.
“I am from the occasion that wishes to attenuate the quantity of legal guidelines — and I agree — however you bought to be good about it,” mentioned Jeff Porter, a Republican and former Missouri state consultant who proposed laws thrice to restrict hand-held cellphone use. “There are literally legal guidelines which are wanted to attempt to present consciousness and save pointless deaths.”
Supporters of hands-free driving legal guidelines concede that distracted driving restrictions aren’t a panacea for all site visitors fatalities. And even when Missouri passes further restrictions on cellphone use, small nuances in wording might affect whether or not such a regulation is efficient.
Nationwide, about 3,000 individuals sometimes die in distracted driving crashes every year, in keeping with Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration information, although researchers counsel that’s an undercount. Whereas hands-free choices at the moment are customary for brand new autos, the variety of distracted driving deaths has stayed comparatively regular. They represented not less than 1 in 12 site visitors fatalities in 2020.
Distracted driving legal guidelines cut back fatalities — if, like those established in 24 states, they ban all hand-held cellphone use somewhat than banning solely a selected exercise akin to texting, in keeping with the Governors Freeway Security Affiliation and a examine revealed in 2021 within the journal Epidemiology. Banning texting alone doesn’t make a distinction, these researchers discovered.
Extra:Dangerous cellphone use whereas driving is hovering, and it is killing People, examine finds
Oregon and Washington noticed vital reductions within the charges of month-to-month rear-end crashes after they broadened their legal guidelines to ban “holding” a cellphone as in contrast with states that banned solely texting, in keeping with a examine from the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security. These two states additionally prohibited holding a cellphone when stopped quickly — say, at a purple mild.
“In case you inform a driver that they’re breaking the regulation simply by holding the cellphone of their hand, a police officer who’s attempting to implement that regulation doesn’t should determine whether or not or not the motive force is texting,” mentioned Ian Reagan, a senior analysis scientist on the Insurance coverage Institute.
Against this, California broadened its texting bans to ban “holding and utilizing” a cellphone however didn’t specify whether or not that ban utilized to a driver stopped quickly. It didn’t see a major discount in rear-end crashes, which the researchers mentioned are a extra telling metric than the often-underreported crashes attributed to distracted driving.
Regardless of the trigger, site visitors fatalities have soared for the reason that pandemic started. Among the many 10 states with the best charges of deaths from deadly motorcar crashes in 2020, in keeping with the Insurance coverage Institute, just one, Tennessee, had a ban on hand-held cellphone use for all drivers on the time. Among the many 10 states with the bottom charges of such fatalities, all however Utah had a hand-held ban for all drivers.
Montana ranked fifth-highest, and Missouri got here in at No. 12.
Adrienne Siddens misplaced her husband, Randall, who was working at a Columbia, Missouri, triathlon in 2019, as a result of a girl utilizing her cellphone to video chat was driving 18 mph over the pace restrict and never listening to automobiles stopped at a purple mild. The motive force swerved and entered a lane that was closed for the race, in keeping with courtroom information.
The girl hit two pedestrians, together with Randall, who flew greater than 127 ft. He spent a lot of the subsequent six months on life assist earlier than dying.
“I now have to boost our three stunning infants alone,” Adrienne Siddens, who was pregnant with their third little one when the crash occurred, testified in a March 2022 listening to on Porter’s invoice. “Along with your assist, passing this laws and implementing a hands-free coverage, so many different households is not going to should expertise this grief.”
Republicans referred the laws to the state Home’s Downsizing State Authorities Committee. The invoice died.
State Rep. Tony Lovasco, a Republican who served on the committee, informed KHN he’s involved that both regulation enforcement might use a ban to cease individuals randomly or they’d have issue implementing it.
“I’m very hesitant to undertake a prohibition on a specific sort of distraction, versus merely implementing the site visitors legal guidelines and ensuring that individuals aren’t weaving out and in of lanes,” mentioned Lovasco.
In Montana, Republicans akin to state Sen. Jeremy Trebas not solely don’t assist a statewide ban, they wish to overrule Missoula and the 14 different Montana cities, cities, and tribal governments which have enacted bans on hand-held cellphone use whereas driving.
“These legal guidelines are going to make the roads extra harmful as a result of persons are simply going to cover it and put the cellphone decrease of their automobile as an alternative of holding their cellphone up and their eyes up,” mentioned Trebas, who drafted laws this yr that will stop native governments from enacting such ordinances. Trebas described his proof to assist that assertion as “largely anecdotal.”
John MacDonald, a former lobbyist for Missoula, opposed an identical invoice by Trebas that failed in 2017. MacDonald ascribed resistance to a statewide ban to the identical forces that made Montana the final state to determine a numerical pace restrict; its restrict was “affordable and prudent” till 1999.
“It is one thing ingrained in Montana that our automobile is form of an extension of our house, and the federal government shouldn’t be dictating to us how we will behave in that automobile,” mentioned MacDonald.
A regulation like Trebas’ proposal already exists in Missouri: Even when a Missouri municipality establishes a ban on texting and driving, because the St. Louis suburb Kirkwood did in 2014, it’s not enforceable as a result of the state says that its regulation supersedes native ordinances.
Angela Nelson, AAA Missouri’s vp of public affairs and authorities relations, mentioned that her group’s previous training on the perils of distracted driving has helped place new statewide proposals to move this yr. The group, a part of a coalition that goals to curb distracted driving accidents, endorsed laws from two Republicans that restricts holding an digital communication machine, in addition to utilizing one, whereas driving. Different Republican legislators launched a measure to only increase the texting ban to all drivers, no matter age. AAA has not taken a place on that one.
Lovasco, although, mentioned it was too early to foretell whether or not any will move.
Siddens, who has advocated for such payments since she misplaced her husband, stays optimistic that Missouri lawmakers will move a more durable regulation after listening to concerning the tragedies for therefore a few years. “Sooner or later, they may do one thing about it,” she mentioned. “They should.”
KHN (Kaiser Well being Information) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Along with Coverage Evaluation and Polling, KHN is without doubt one of the three main working packages at KFF (Kaiser Household Basis). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering info on well being points to the nation.
