Mississippi Highway Patrol urges stronger texting law
Mississippi Highway Patrol officials say the state’s nearly 2-year-old texting law is too complicated and the penalty so minor that most law enforcement will write tickets instead for careless driving.
“We got to put some teeth into this,” said Department of Public Safety General Counsel Trae Sims, a former prosecutor. "What we have now are beginner steps."
Since the law went into effect July 1, 2015, a total of 148 tickets, 54 in 2015 and 94 in 2016, have been written for texting while driving, Highway Patrol spokesman Capt. Johnny Poulos.said.
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In comparison, last year, more than 1,000 tickets each were written for reckless driving and careless driving, he said.
Poulos told the Senate Highway and Transportation Committee, "there needs to be consequences for the law to be effective."
The Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 389 in 2015 and Gov. Phil Bryant signed it into law. The law bans texting and posting to social media while driving. The bill allows a civil fine of $25 per violation. The civil fine increased to $100 per violation in 2016.
Poulos said the problem with the texting bill is that it only carries a civil penalty, not a criminal penalty. He said a law enforcement officer has to go to Justice Court and file an affidavit for texting while driving.
Often, Highway Patrol officers have to drive as far as 50 miles out of their jurisdiction to file a texting citation in Justice Court, so they likely will write a careless driving citation instead, Poulos said.
Poulos and others say municipal police departments aren’t likely to write texting citations since it is a civil citation and can't be filed in Municipal Court. If it had a criminal penalty, a texting while driving citation could be filed in Municipal Court.
Another problem MHP sees with the texting law is it lists only two actions in which a person would be in violation of the law and that is for texting and posting to social media. He said a motorist can argue they were on a website or playing a game instead of texting or posting to social media.
“You need to broaden it or make it hands free period,” Poulos said. “If the goal is to prevent and deter behavior, make it hands free.”
Some senators say they had a tougher texting bill in 2014, but it died in the House. In 2015, the House bill was passed.
Sen. Billy Hudson, R-Hattiesburg, said he tried unsuccessfully nine years ago to get a bill passed that would have limited cellphone use while driving to hands-free use only.
Hudson said California recently passed a law that builds upon its distracted driving laws that ban holding or operating a smartphone while driving unless it is mounted to the dashboard or inside windshield. The new law took effect Jan. 1.
“We have taught our grandkids not to text while driving,” Hudson said.
Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Armory, said Mississippi’s texting bill went to “great lengths to do nothing.”
When the House Transportation Committee passed the texting bill in 2015, then-committee chairman, Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, said it was a first step. He said they couldn’t get a tougher measure passed at that time.
JOHNSON ON TEXTING BILL: Video of then-House Transportation Chairman Robert Johnson.
Poulos said there has been fatal crashes investigated where cellphones were located with the cursor flashing, meaning the person never got the opportunity to send a text message.
Safe Kids Mississippi says the No. 1 killer of young people, age 16-20, is motor vehicle crashes. In 2015, 78 young drivers were killed in crashes in the state, says SafeKids Mississippi Youth Program Manager Tawni Basden.
Basden said the figures should be available soon for 2016.
A SafeKids Mississippi proposal to lower teen motor vehicle fatalities is for the state to strengthen the texting and driving policy to include no phone use and increased fines for all ages.
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@gannett.com . Follow him on Facebook and Twitter .