Utah State law makes texting while driving illegal

A closer look at the July 2009 legislation

By: Samantha Jacobson and Stefan Stathopulos

Posted: 11/10/09

In most states, texting while driving that results in injury or death is punished with as little as a small fine. The law is more serious in Utah, and a driver who commits this same offense can spend up to 15 years in jail.

On March 25, 2008 the state Senate passed Bill 290 that made texting while driving illegal in Utah. The bill went into effect on July 1 of this year.

Senator Lyle Hillyard was prompted to sponsor the bill after an accident that happened on Sept. 28, 2006 just west of Logan, Utah. Nineteen year-old Reggie Shaw crossed the yellow line in his Chevy Tahoe, clipping a Saturn sedan. Inside were two scientists, James Furaro, 38, and his passenger, Keith P. O'Dell, 50. The Saturn spun across the highway and was struck by a pick-up truck. Furaro and O'Dell were killed instantly.

In a phone interview Senator Hillyard said, "The accident was very traumatic for the children and especially the widows of these two men." Between the two of them, Furaro and O'Dell left behind 12 children.

Initially Utah State Highway Patrol could not identify the cause of the car accident, calling it "left of center," a term used for traffic offenses that involve crossing the yellow divider. According to The New York Times a witness told Utah State Highway Patrol she saw Shaw's vehicle swerving before he hit Furaro's car, making the state patrol suspicious. The trooper later retrieved Shaw's phone records, finding that Shaw had sent a text message one minute before calling highway patrol. Even after this fact, county prosecutors had a hard time charging Shaw with anything other than left of center.

Hillyard said it wasn't until a trial held around Thanksgiving in 2008 that Shaw plead guilty to two counts of negligent homicide. Shaw served 30 days in jail and was required to perform 200 hours community service. He now speaks to audiences about the dangers of texting and driving.

Curtis was convicted in Feb. 2009 of causing death by dangerous driving. She was sent to prison for 21 months.

Bill 290

Hillyard didn't think it was right that one person could act irresponsibly and kill others with no penalty. He didn't like the gray area that surrounded the issue of texting while driving. These strong feelings provoked him to file Senate Bill 148. In its first draft, the bill was extremely strict and stated that if a person injured someone while driving it was negligent homicide. Hillyard knew he would have to make some compromises in order to get the bill passed. Steve Clark from Provo also sponsored Bill 290.

James Dunnigan from the House of Representatives in District 39 also backed Hillyard on the bill. Dunnigan said he consistently sees drivers distracted by cell phone use. He also cited several studies in the last year that show people can't talk on the phone and fully concentrate on driving at the same time.

"Talking on the phone is bad, but texting is worse. Not only does it take a hand away from the wheel to text, but you are also looking away from the road," Dunnigan said.
Dunnigan believes texting while driving is similar to a D.U.I. Dunnigan said, "Texting can be as distracting mentally as when you are under the influence."

The first time someone is texting while driving caught they will receives a minimum fine of $700, along with no less than 48 hours of jail time or community service hours.

If caught a second time within 10 years of the first offense, the driver will receive a fine of $800 or more, 240 hours or 10 days of jail time, suspension of driver's license for one year and 240 hours of community service.

A third offense is punishable with at least 62.5 days in jail, a minimum fine of $1,500 and a license suspension of a minimum of one year. The court may also order more penalties including additional jail time, extended or permanent driver's license revocation and for the convicted driver to pay all fines and fees.

Lieutenant Don Hudson of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said fines and penalties can and will always vary. "It's up to the judge to use his or her digression and decide what the punishment should be," Hudson said. The ticket isn't.

Hillyard said one of his compromises with Bill 290 was that texting and driving would be treated as a primary offense. Prior to the change, a police officer had to pull a driver over for another citation and then catch the driver text messaging. Now an officer can pull someone over if they suspect a driver is texting. "You will receive lighter penalties if you are caught texting and driving, and haven't caused a problem. If you do cause a problem there are strict consequences," Hillyard said.

Law Enforcement

Hudson said officers are having a hard time enforcing the law due to stipulations in proving the driver is texting and not dialing a number. He said to prove someone was texting while driving the phone must be subpoenaed and may be analyzed to investigate specific activities at the time of an incident. According to the law, a driver's phone will be looked at to determine fault and liability if a fatal accident occurs.

"From a law enforcement perspective, it's quite difficult to enforce this law. There can be a lot of reasons a person is distracted," Hudson said. "Unless they hold the phone up in plain view it's very hard to say what caused the accident, or what was distracting that person. You can't just make the assumption that texting is what caused the accident."

Hudson said it's naive to believe this law has stopped people from texting while driving entirely. "I would hope that it would make people at least pause when they are thinking about texting and driving," Hudson said. "It certainly is an issue and is very distracting when you are trying to operate a motor vehicle."

Keith Dockstader, Sergeant over Public
Information and Education at the Utah
Department of Public Safety said the new law is a good thing. "I don't think I've heard about anybody that doesn't think the law isn't a good idea," Dockstader said. "It's hard to enforce, but it is helpful if nothing else." Although not everybody who texts while driving will be caught, Dockstader said the consequences will make drivers think twice.

"Fear is a deterrent for people. It's kind of like speeding. More people would speed if they knew they weren't going to get in trouble for it," Dockstader said.

Dockstader has seen many accidents where drivers have drifted and hit another vehicle ran off the road or run into road barriers because of texting. He said he receives a lot of reckless driver calls or complaints and often texting is to blame.

Students Views on the Law

Stefan Reiter, a junior at Westminster College said people who text while driving are irresponsible, and that texting while driving impairs a driver from having full attention on the road. "Most times when I see someone doing something stupid while driving such as veer in to my lane, they are usually on their cell phone and you can tell they aren't paying attention to the road," Reiter said.

While surveying students at Westminster College, 17 out of 25 students admitted to texting while driving. Kelsey Schaufler, a senior at Westminster said texting while driving should be banned, but not cell phone use as a whole. Most students surveyed agreed with Kelsey. Even those who admitted to texting while driving agreed that cell phones without a hands free device should be banned.

Freshman Alex Drecksel said the ban is a good idea. He thinks legislature should ban all handheld devices, even though he admits to texting while driving himself.
"Texting definitely impairs my ability to drive," Drecksel said.

Drecksel also said that the majority of his friends' text while driving, and until this point he was not aware of the punishment that now comes when texting and driving.

"I've noticed that the majority of the time when people are driving out of control they are either talking on their cell phone or using it to text, and not paying attention to the way they are driving," Drecksel said.
Texting laws in other states and countries
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, (GHSA) many cities and states are adopting laws banning cell phone use without a hands free device. That means drivers must use Bluetooth or have a speaker and microphone installed in their car. Reiter hopes Utah will adopt a law banning cell phone use without a hands free device.

Hillyard said Utah and Alaska are the only two states that treat texting while driving as a serious offense. In 2007 Alaska passed a bill for no texting while driving that applies to all drivers. This is not the case in many states. Those caught texting or using other specific types of technology while driving may face up to 20 years in prison, much like Utah's penalty of 15 years.
According to the GHSA, many states are in the process of banning texting while driving; however, there are still some that don't have any law that bans texting while driving or other cell phone laws.

As of now 14 states enforce a no texting while driving law for all drivers. On January 1, 2010 similar laws will be in effect for a total of 19 states. Twenty-eight states have some type of restrictions on texting and driving. However not all 28 states specify the law to all drivers. Some states restrictions are made for age and license types. NPR reports some of these states have penalties with as low as a $20 fine.

Cell phone use while driving has come up as an issue in countries other than the U.S. In November 2007 Philippa Curtis, from the U.K. hit Victoria McBrydes's parked car going 70 miles per hour. McBryde was in her car on the side of the road because she had a flat tire. After the crash, McBryde's car spun into on-coming traffic and hit two more cars. Curtis suffered an arm injury and McBryde suffered a brain injury and later died. The BBC reported Curtis sent and received more than 20 text messages before she crashed her car. While Curtis admits to texting while driving, she said she did not at the time of the accident.

Arguments for and against the bill

Hillyard said most of the lobbyists against this bill were cell phone companies that wanted to make sure "hands free" weren't covered completely. In his particular bill, Hillyard made sure that hands free sets weren't under the bill, ensuring people could still talk on their cell phones while driving.

His strategy in doing this was so that he didn't add anything so controversial that might kill his bill. Hillyard said the broader and more extensive a bill gets, the more terms a Senator must add. The senator wanted to make his bill simple and to the point. He wanted people to know "once you text in a car, you are in trouble."

Other individuals argued against the bill saying we live in a free country and we should be able to do what we please. Hillyard said,"This doesn't fly with me. You lose some of your freedoms when you have someone recklessly driving 100 miles per hour down the road putting others lives in danger."

Changes in behavior and law

Hillyard believes changes are beginning to take place involving the new law. "We still have a ways to come," he said. Dunnigan also believes changes are being made, but even so in the last week of October there was an accident that police suspect texting was involved. "I think a lot of people are still texting and driving," Dunnigan said, "but I do think people are beginning to change their habits."

Recently a press conference was held by the county attorney in Cache County. The county attorney reported four recent deaths in Utah could be attributed to distracted drivers, according to Hillyard. "Law enforcement is getting much stricter about this and will continue to crack down on this new law," he said.

"The next step would be to use cell phones only as a hands free device. There are the hands free ear sets which would be better than where we are now," Dunnigan said, "but it is still a distraction mentally."

Hudson is unsure about a total cell phone ban. But he said, "It would certainly eliminate the opportunity to recklessly drive because a person was texting. It would make things easier to enforce and cut down on distractions."

Currently Hillyard doesn't have any future plans for this particular law either. "I've got what I wanted to accomplish." Hillyard said, "I think there will come a time when there will be a no cell phone ban, but I'm not going to do it."