North Carolina Senators Seeking Tougher Standards Returned to Driving Phone Ban

RALEIGH, NC – According to an online news report at wcti12.com, senators want tougher standards returned to a legislative driving phone prohibition.*

Several weeks after the North Carolina House members weakened a driving phone ban legislation, state senators want to restore the language that would make it illegal for drivers to hold their cellphones when behind the wheel.

Republican legislators and the parents of children who were killed in distracted driving crashes recently held a news conference to seek the passage of a more robust “Hands Free NC” law.  They indicated that distracted driving has increasingly become more prevalent in the state and given the consequences of same, they need to address the issue head-on.

“We’re trying to draw attention to a very serious problem,” said one senator who is promoting a tougher cellphone use ban.  “We want to put that still small voice in their head that when they pick up their phone they’re thinking, ‘I don’t need to be doing this.’”

The original bill was modeled after the new hands free law in Georgia that makes it illegal for drivers to hold cellphones when driving or to cradle these devices against their shoulder.  Anyone who violates this law faces $100 in fines and they could increase to $200 for recidivists.   Penalties on one’s insurance for those who violate the law is also possible. Emergency responders and law enforcement are exempt from the law.

Subsequently, the House changed the law to make cellphone use when driving illegal only when there is evidence that it contributed to negligent or reckless driving.   The rewritten law appears to dissatisfy a large amount of people given that, according to them, it lacks teeth and insets the government into individual’s lives.  

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Source:https://wcti12.com/news/state-news/senators-want-tougher-language-returned-to-driving-phone-ban