Lawmakers Consider Distracted Driving Bills, Moving Towards Single Approach

A plan that would allow patrol officers to ticket distracted drivers moved a step closer to reality May 10, when the state Senate Transportation Committee voted for S.B. 314, which would make distracted driving a secondary offense. Patrol officers would have to stop a driver for another offense, such as speeding or weaving across lanes, before issuing a distracted driving citation, under the proposal.

The bill, approved by the committee on a 12-2 vote, now heads to the Senate for consideration.

State Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, minority chairman of the committee, said the bipartisan passage of the bill shows the legislation is not about Republicans versus Democrats but about “trying to prevent carnage on the highways.”

“This has been discussed for many years now,” said Wozniak. “You see people all the time trying to drive and using their phones. I guess we can’t say actually how many accidents (there are), but we can sort of assume there’s tremendous accidents. People talking, texting, basically trying to communicate with other human beings rather than keeping your eyes on the road.”

State Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said S.B. 314 addresses distracted driving “of all ages.”

“I think raising this level of concern to a secondary offense will be helpful to the police,” said Rafferty. “More importantly I’m thinking, and hopeful, that it acts as a deterrent for drivers, so they realize they shouldn’t be texting or dialing their cell phone, as they’re driving the car on the turnpike or on the back highway or on the interstate.”

Rafferty compared S.B. 314 to the seat belt law in Pennsylvania and emphasized the “dual quality” of making distracted driving a secondary offense and convincing Pennsylvanians of the safety features.

Two bills in the House, H.B. 8 and H.B. 896, have a similar focus. The bills address distracted driving for junior drivers and adult drivers separately, and include more categories of distracted driving than the Senate version.

H.B. 896 defines distracted driving as careless driving while the driver is using a radio, recording or playback device, telephone device, citizens band radio, television, computer, “and any other device.” The House passed this bill May 10 by a 196-7 vote.

It also includes grooming, eating food and reading any electronic or printed material, including cell phone texts, offenses not included in S.B. 314.

H.B. 8, which the House has passed, would explicitly prohibit the use of cell phones while driving, including talking and texting.

Rafferty said once the House bills arrive in the state Senate, the House and Senate Transportation committees will work on which bill or bills the whole Assembly will support. 

“Somewhere along the line, we’ll look at that bill when it comes over from the House,” said Rafferty. “(State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Blair) will look at this bill, when it comes over from the Senate, and our two committees will have discussions as to how we’re going to reconcile any differences.”

Geist chairs the House Transportation Committee. Its executive director, Eric Bugaile, said it was “kind of early” to know how the House would deal with S.B. 314, particularly given the different approaches to distracted driving taken by each chamber.

“Our approach over here has been to do each issue separately,” said Bugaile. “Any time you try to put (the issues) all together into one package, it just gives members a reason to vote against the package because it has something they don’t like in it. We’ve been trying to keep the issues (separate). We have texting in one bill. We have distracted driving in another bill, and we have young driver changes in a separate bill.”