Ohio is on its way to becoming the 39th state to ban texting while driving, and the first state to ban minors from using hand-held electronic devices behind the wheel. The Ohio House approved the revised version of H.B. 99, Tuesday, May 15, 82-12. The bill will now go to Governor Kasich who is expected to sign it into law.
Bill cosponsors, Representative Rex Damschroder and Representative Nancy Garland, introduced H.B. 99 in early 2011. The original version of the bill would have made text based communication a primary offense for all drivers. This version passed the Ohio House in June, 2011, but remained stalled in the Senate Highways and Transportation committee for many months.
In early May, the senate committee revisited H.B. 99 and amended the bill before voting it out of committee on May 2. The amended H.B. 99 makes texting while driving a secondary offense for adults 18 and over. This means an officer must first pull a driver over for another moving violation before issuing a citation for texting while driving. The bill also makes it a primary offense for minors to use any hand-held electronic device while driving.
On May 3, the Ohio Senate passed H.B. 99, 25-8. The bill then went back to the Ohio House floor Tuesday morning, May 15, for concurrence.
Thirty eight other states and the District of Columbia have passed laws banning texting while driving, and 35 of them are primary enforcement laws. In Ohio, a number of cities ban texting on a primary basis. Due to Ohio’s Home Rule laws, these bans would take precedence over the statewide ban on texting for adults.
AAA has been actively lobbying for a ban on texting while driving in Ohio since 2009, when the organization made it a national goal to pass texting while driving bans in all 50 states. AAA members consistently name texting while driving as one of their top safety concerns and 95 percent of Ohio’s more than 2 million AAA members support a law banning the practice.
As its members’ most trusted and vocal advocate, AAA is disappointed that Ohio’s texting while driving ban will not be primary enforcement, but believes this is an important step in stopping drivers from texting on Ohio’s roads.
The organization applauds the Ohio legislature for its efforts and for adding the teen driving provision to the bill. Teenagers have the highest crash risk of any age group and a recent study by the AAA foundation for Traffic Safety found that electronic devices are the leading cause of distraction among teenage drivers. AAA hopes this provision will help save the lives of Ohio teens.
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