SC House Considers Banning Texting While Driving

(Columbia, SC) – Ned Blackmon’s 35-year-old son Monty died six years ago in a car accident. It’s an accident he says could have been prevented.

“He came up on this lady in front of him. She was talking on a cell telephone,” said Blackmon.

He told a House subcommittee that if the driver of that car had not been using a cell phone his son might still be alive today.

“There’s thousands of people out there, hundreds of people out there, that lost loved ones and the pain and the hurt and the grief, it’s hard to bear. It’s hard to bear sometimes,” he said.

So legislators are considering a bill that would ban texting and using a hand-held phone while driving.

A conviction on the misdemeanor would carry a $100 fine.

Bill co-sponsor, state Rep. Don Smith (R-Aiken), says hands-free devices would be exempt.

“Obviously from the input we got today there’s a real strong feeling out there about text messaging, but there is a mixed bag, I guess we should say at this point, on cell phone usage itself,” said Smith.

People like Columbia businessman Buddy Young say using a phone in the car is a vital part of doing business.

“When I’m between appointments I will call a customer, I will call a vendor, (or) I will call employees if we need to take care of something and a lot of businessmen do that. It’s just the way we make the most out of our day,” said Young.

For young people like University of South Carolina senior Lacey Lee, the habit of using a cell phone in the car will be even more difficult to break.

“I probably text and drive on a daily basis,” she said.

Lee says most of her friends also text while driving and she thinks passing a new law will have little effect.

“I know it’s definitely dangerous. However, there’s a lot of laws that people don’t follow, so even if they do go through (with) it, I really don’t see it changing much,” said Lee.

Lawmakers concede enforcing the law will be difficult and they say there’s little information to show the dangers of using a cell phone while driving.

“There’s not as much comparative data, because, to some degree, it’s a new phenomenon,” said Rep. Smith. “But the information that is out there is very alarming.”

One official with AAA-Carolinas told the committee that texting while driving can be more dangerous than drunk driving.

“Statistics show that if you make a law that 81 percent of the people will automatically obey that law. If we could get 81 percent of the people out there right now, who are text messaging or who are using hand-held instruments, to abide by the law, then I think we’ve hit a home run. We’ve done a heck of a job,” said Rep. Smith.

He says the issue is on the people’s minds.

“Quite honestly when I’m in my neighborhood back home, when I’m talking around to different people, I get more comments on that, text messaging and hand-held phones, than I do budget cuts.”

The bill is among six proposed this year that deal with text messaging or cell phone use in the car.