The House Transportation Committee has approved legislation once again to ban held-held cell phones while driving. Breaux Bridge Representative Mike Huval says his legislation is intended to promote safe driving behavior and not for the police to issue a bunch of tickets.
“If you go in front of the judge, you don’t even have to pay the ticket, he can give you community service,” said Huval. “Again, we are not doing this to give tickets, we are not doing this to raise money, if you happen to want to pay for it, instead of community service, of course, you can pay for it.”
The Louisiana House approved Huval’s hand-held cell phone ban while driving last year, but it failed to pass the Senate by one vote.
CEO of Stopdistractions.org, Jennifer Smith says 24 states plus Washington D-C have a hands-free law.
“Georgia’s hands-free law for distracted driving crashes, the first year they had the law in effect in 2019, which was half-the-year, there was a 48% drop in distracted driving crashes,” said Smith.
The House Transportation Committee gave unanimous support to Huval’s bill. But there are some legislators who have concerns. Vacherie Representative Ken Brass questions whether law enforcement can enforce this proposed law.
“Will they be taught and trained to identify texting in general without seeing the person, whether they can actually identify that the person (driver) is texting,” said Brass.
The measure heads to the House floor for more discussion.
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