Next time Ohio University students — or anyone in Ohio — get behind the wheel of a vehicle, the driver might want to think twice before fiddling with his or her cellphone.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich plans to sign a bill into law that will ban texting while driving and prohibit drivers younger than 18 from using any electronic device behind the wheel.
“I think texting and driving is a problem everywhere,” OU Police Chief Andrew Powers said. “I don’t think there is any geographic boundaries to it. It happens in Athens and really everywhere.”
Ohio will be the 39th state to ban texting while driving and the first in the country to prohibit drivers under 18 from using any electronic devices while driving.
“I think the bill will absolutely save lives,” Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said.
According to a recent survey of the motoring public by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, nearly half of drivers ages 18 to 24 admitted to text messaging while driving.
“I text and drive sometimes,” said Rebecca Merritt, a junior studying management information systems. “I know that it is a hazard and puts other people at risk, and I think that the bill will keep people from doing it because they will be afraid of getting caught.”
Under the bill, texting while driving would be a secondary offense for adults, meaning an officer would first have to cite the driver for another offense such as speeding.
“I think, if (texting and driving) continues to get worse as I have seen it has over the last two years, there could be a push for it to be a primary offense,” Pyle said.
Felice Schwarz, a sophomore studying journalism from Riverdale, N.Y., where texting and driving is a primary offense, said she doesn’t text and drive.
“It is illegal in New York, and I like to be very careful when I drive,” she said. “I think that texting and driving should be banned.”
Powers and Pyle both said respectively that APD and OUPD were not directly involved in advocating for or against legislation of the bill.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is no time or place to text behind the wheel of a car,” Pyle said. “As far as our policy at the police department, any use of a cellphone requires us to pull off to the side of the road and put the vehicle in park.”
bc822010@ohiou.edu
