Texting to take a back seat on Colorado roads
Text n drive? U cud get a ticket.
Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill into law Monday making it illegal to send text messages while driving in Colorado. And drivers under the age of 18 won’t be allowed to use a cell phone at all, unless they pull over and stop.
After HB1094 takes effect Dec. 1, violators will face a $50 fine.
The new law makes an exception for an emergency, defined as a risk to life, safety or property, or to report a crime.
While texting is forbidden, dialing a phone number is not, a distinction that may make the law hard to enforce. It’s more than a technicality, since, to make a traffic stop, the police are supposed to have probable cause – a reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime.
Contacted Monday at State Patrol headquarters in Lakewood, Sgt. John Hahn, a spokesman, said he figured that, to establish probable cause, it would usually be necessary to observe the driver “for a sustained period of time, clicking away on their cell phone,” meaning troopers would have to pull alongside a moving vehicle and stay there long enough to satisfy themselves that the driver was doing more than punching a 10-digit number into a cell phone.
The measure was watered down before final passage. As originally approved by the House of Representatives, the bill would have forbidden all cell-phone use while driving, regardless of the age of the motorist, unless a hands-free device was used.
Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, was a prime sponsor of the bill and said Monday he would keep trying to prohibit hand-held cell phone use by Colorado drivers.
“For me it’s a first step,” he said of Monday’s signing. “It’s my hope that we can amend this, as time goes on.”
Ritter will be signing scores of bills this week. Friday, the 30th day after the Legislature adjourned, is the final day for the governor to take action on bills approved by the 2009 General Assembly.
Unless Ritter vetoes them, after Friday, they become law without his signature.
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U.S. forward Jozy Altidore (17) collides with Trinidad and Tobago defender Aklie Edwards, right, and goalkeeper Clayton Ince, bottom, in the first half of a World Cup qualifying soccer match in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Photo by The Associated Press