A Proposed Ordinance May Soon Keep San Angelo Drivers From Texting While Driving

Distracted driving is now a leading cause of death and injury on the roadways in the U.S. According to the Texas Department of Public Transportation, in 2014, there were 100,825 traffic crashes in Texas that involved distracted driving, which was a 6 percent increase from 2013.

“These crashes in 2014 resulted in 3,214 serious injuries and 468 deaths,” stated the TxDOT website. “In fact, nearly one in five crashes in Texas involves driver distraction.”

Many states across the nation have experienced similar statistics, and as a result, 45 states have adopted no texting and driving laws, and in some cases, only allow cell phone calls with Bluetooth or “hands free” technology. In Texas, legislators attempted to pass a no texting and driving law, and in March 2015, the Texas House tentatively approved the bill. It passed with a 102 – 40 vote; however, the bill didn’t pass because previous Governor Rick Perry vetoed the bill.

Perry said although texting and driving is reckless, “that is too much government on adult drivers.” Additionally, there’s a ban in Texas currently for no texting and driving for people 18 years or younger, and the way to stop this problem is “through information and education.”

“If you stop and do just a little bit of research, you’ll see that we’ve had texting and driving campaigns throughout the nation and throughout the state,” said San Angelo Assistant Police Chief Jeff Fant Tuesday morning. “I just gave away 2000 T-shirts that say ‘Don’t text and drive.’ The education campaigns are out there. Is it doing any good? Well, if it stops one driver from texting and driving and having an accident, obviously we get some good; so the education campaigns are out there, but I think the next logical step is to enact some sort of ordinance or regulations on it.”

Well, thanks to City Councilman Rodney Fleming, Single-Member District 1, who proposed an ordinance that will regulate the use of hand-held mobile communication devices while driving at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting at the McNease Convention Center, San Angelo will possibly have a law in place that will not only make it illegal for teenagers 18 years and younger to text and drive, but it will also make it illegal for adults to do the same.

Fleming said city council members talked about this type of ordinance last January but they assumed the Texas Legislature was going to pass the statewide law, which never happened.

“Texas is one of the minority states that doesn’t have that [law] in place,” he said. “We have laws on the books for minors who cannot text and drive under the age of 18 in Texas. I feel texting and driving is one of those things you can’t do while driving. I really believe Texas legislators would have passed this if there wasn’t partisan politics at play in the situation, and it should be coming here in the next few years.”

Fleming noted, based on information he found, that texting takes a driver’s attention away for 4.6 seconds and increases the chance of an accident by 23 percent.

“To put that in perspective, if a driver is driving at 55 mph, the driver doesn’t look at the road for the length of an entire football field,” Fleming said. “Can you imagine going down the road at 55 mph and not look up at the road for the whole length of a football field? How many people or objects can you hit during that time?”

Fleming also mentioned the fatal crash yesterday involving a recent Central High School graduate and a current Central High School student, Cesar Castillo and Noah Whitaker.

He explained, “We don’t have the information on that yet, but looking at the way the odds are, it was probably some kind of distracted driving. Maybe it wasn’t texting, but it was some type of distraction, and distracted driving has become a huge issue in this country.”

In Texas, Midland and 39 cities have passed a no texting and driving ordinance, and he proposed that San Angelo establish an ordinance that will “resemble” the city of Midland’s. Overall, the ban would address texting and driving as well as the use of applications. Drivers would only be allowed to use the GPS function on their device.

One area of concern addressed Tuesday dealt with emergency personnel and storm chasers and how they engage in wireless communications. Assistant Chief Fant and members of the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club attended Tuesday’s meeting to help address that aspect of this possible ordinance.

“Police officers and emergency personnel should be exempt from this ordinance because they may need to type on their computers, which they do right now,” stated Fleming. “I also think storm chasers are texting when there’s a storm and helping out with public safety.”

Fant, who spoke on behalf of Chief Tim Vasquez, said he and the chief support the ordinance.

He said, “We got this from one of our analysts this morning, and in 2014, cell phone distraction in the vehicle contributed to 26 accidents; 107 accidents were attributed to driver inattention and destruction of a vehicle, and another 420 for inattention. Of that 420 and 107, there’s no distinction as to what caused that distraction, but I would assume that distraction could have been cell phone use. It is an issue; it is a problem.”

Fant added that although enforcement is difficult, it’s something that can be done. Also, education on the issue is equally important. There are some aspects of the ordinance though that police officers should be exempt from because SAPD officers do receive all their calls by wireless communication, so if these exceptions aren’t made, that would affect the 100,000 + calls a year they receive.

“It would cut down on the response times, and it would cut down on the ability for an officer to do his [or her] job,” Fant said.

Officers, however, do not have to be texting while driving, and they can pull over to do so. Therefore, SAPD can address that through policy. On the other hand, Fant said he didn’t believe storm chasers should be exempt from the ordinance.

“In a storm situation, there’s no reason we can’t pull to the side and send that information,” he stated. “Typically, there’s not any life or death situation at that time. If there is a life or death situation, they would be exempt based on the other exceptions to the ordinances.”

David Eaton with the San Angelo Amateur Radio Club disagreed somewhat with the assistant chief. Eaton told council members there’s a difference between storm spotters and storm chasers. Storm chasers come from all over to the San Angelo area to take pictures, shoot videos and do research. They go everywhere, so in that case, exemptions shouldn’t be made. Storm spotters and the amateur radio club, however, provide a community service with the National Weather service to help them get the ground troops to provide better warnings to what their radars say.

“So we’re moving and communicating with an operator at the National Weather Service,” explained Eaton. “Sometimes, we’re in harm’s way, but we need to stay out of harm’s way, so we’re communicating while we’re moving. I don’t disagree with the ordinance at all, but those are the things that we do, and things that happen. Can we be exempted from those portions? Absolutely. We’re working with disasters; we’re working with floods; we’re working with severe weather.”

Bill Ware, who didn’t belong to any group but wanted to give his opinion, said he doesn’t believe in texting and driving, but he has a problem with ordinances that ban things.

“I wonder when it’s going to stop. There are lots of distracted driving and the city can’t ban all of them,” Ware said. “More research has to be done to see how many accidents have been reduced as a result of this ban, and more thought has to be put into an ordinance before it’s put to the city for a vote.”

Another citizen who agreed with Ware said, “Let’s try education first. How about a city-wide campaign to emphasize to our citizens that this is something we need to be aware of?”

Well, as Fant said, there are enough campaigns and education that do just that, and there’s no doubt that education and awareness are an “umbrella” of the ordinance. However, something more has to be done.

Fant stated, “People forget that driving on a state highway or public road is a privilege. It’s not a right. You won’t have the privilege to the roadways if you don’t adhere to certain things. You’re going to wear your seatbelt. You’re going to have insurance on your vehicle. Of course, there’s other issues involved with that, but there are laws in place to protect the public, and to protect those around you. You have to look at it with what’s the broader good of an ordinance or any law, and what’s the reason for it. In my opinion, it has to be for a broader good—a broader spectrum of things that will do good for society as opposed to for an individual.”

All in all, council members also agreed something more has to be done, and after an in-depth discussion and more public comment, council members voted to move forward with direction of the ordinance.

“We still have at least three more meetings to discuss this,” Mayor Dwain Morrison pointed out. Things to be worked out will be the exemptions, the exact language and the public will have an opportunity to give their views on the topic.

Fleming said he understands that people say this law isn’t enforceable, but when it’s an option of doing this or not doing this, he thinks it’s better to have a law on the books to get people to be more cognizant of their actions.

Fant agreed and said SAPD, as a department, hopes this ordinance, if it passes, will increase the awareness and the dangers of texting and driving.

“It’s a tool that police officers can use at discretion to be able to address a problem; and if it becomes a problem, especially in congested areas and during heavy traffic, we’ll be able to, at a very minimum, call attention to that problem; so I think, in that respect, it will be good,” stated Fant.

The assistant chief also said the majority of the population in San Angelo do adhere to the laws, and people know there’s a problem with texting and driving in general.

Fant noted, “Nowadays, texting and cell phone usage has become such an integral part of our society, and I think that is a measure a government body is going to have to take and address to keep it in check. I don’t think we’re going to solve every problem through an ordinance. It’s just not going to happen. You can have gun laws, but then criminals have guns. However, you have to regulate that because 80 or 90 percent of the population is going to adhere to the laws. You do it because that’s the right thing to do.”