Texting Legislation At Odds Across State Line

Legislators from opposite sides of State Street seem to be at odds with one another over outlawing text messaging from behind the wheel.

On Tuesday, Tennessee state Rep. Jon Lundberg, R-1, said he’s busy tweaking a bill he sponsored to make texting while driving illegal in the Volunteer State.

“It’s logical,” said Lundberg, who represents Bristol, Tenn., in the 99-member Tennessee House of Representatives. “It makes sense and it saves lives.”

A similar bill took a major step forward Tuesday in the Virginia General Assembly when it cleared the Senate by a 33-6 vote. But state Sen. William Wampler, R-40, was one of the six people who voted against the bill. Wampler represents Bristol, Va., in the 40-member state Senate.

“I generally agreed with the bill,” Wampler said Tuesday, but he voted against the plan due to fears it might keep parents from sending their children emergency messages to call home while they were out on the road.

Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-1, who represents Gate City in the 100-member House of Delegates, also voted against the bill. He was one of 10 who voted no when the bill hit the House floor Feb. 10.

Sponsored by Delegate John Cosgrove, R-78, the Virginia bill would make writing or reading text messages a secondary traffic offense punishable by a $25 fine for the first offense and a $50 fine for each subsequent offense. The legislation needs to pass a final vote in the Virginia House of Delegates before it can become law.

Lundberg’s bill also would make the practice punishable by a $50 fine. He said Tuesday that he hopes to bring the plan through the Tennessee General Assembly’s committee process in two weeks.

“I’m glad Virginia is moving ahead with this,” Lundberg said. “I think a number of folks are waking up to the fact that this is not an anomaly.”

Seven states and the District of Columbia have bans on texting while driving, according to the Governor’s Highway Safety Administration. Another nine states have laws keeping novice drivers or those under the age of 18 from engaging in the practice.

Even with those laws, a December 2008 survey conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 49.5 percent of drivers ages 18 to 24 have either sent or received a text message from behind the wheel in the past month.

Lundberg sponsored a similar bill during last year’s legislative session but it was referred to a summer study committee, a tactic he said is commonly used to kill legislation. Lundberg said the fate of this year’s bill will be different because he’s already recruited Sen. Jim Tracy, R-16, to carry a version through the Tennessee Senate.

“We think we’ve got enough support to get it passed,” said Tracy, who represents Shelbyville in the 39-member Senate and chairs that body’s Transportation Committee.

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