Colorado criminalizes texting, tweeting while driving
Coloradans' days of texting while driving are now officially numbered.
Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law Monday a bill to make it a crime to send text messages — including e-mails and tweets — while driving. The new law will prohibit anyone younger than 18 from using a cellphone at all while driving.
"Driving requires our full attention," Ritter said in a statement. "Drivers should not be texting while behind the wheel. And drivers younger than 18 ought to be focusing on the road, not their cellphones."
Ritter signed the bill in Fort Collins, where a little girl was struck and killed last year by a motorist who was distracted while talking on a cellphone.
The law takes effect Dec. 1. Violations will be considered a Class A traffic infraction, punishable by a fine of $50 for a first offense and $100 on a second offense.
The bill's legislative sponsors applauded the signing as a step forward for public safety in Colorado, but at the same time, they lamented that the bill does not more aggressively deal with cellphone usage while driving. When first introduced, the bill would have also required adult drivers to use hands-free devices when talking on cellphones while driving. It was changed after meeting opposition from Republicans and some Democrats.
"It's a small step forward," Rep. Randy Fischer, a Fort Collins Democrat who was a co-sponsor on the bill. "But we have a lot of work left to do."
The signing drew a similar response from Shelley Forney, the mother of 9-year-old Erica Forney, who died on Thanksgiving last year after being struck by a 36-year-old driver distracted by a cellphone call. Shelley Forney's tearful testimony provided emotional thrust to the bill in the legislature.
"We're disappointed, but we are glad that something is passing," Forney said. "It's not the bill that we were supporting, but anything is better than nothing."
Fischer, in whose district the Forneys live, said he intends to push for the stronger restrictions in next year's legislative session. But bill co-sponsor Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, said she thinks lawmakers have work to do outside the Capitol before making another push inside the building.
"We need to let people get a little bit better educated of the hazards of driving while talking," Levy said.
The bill — formerly known as House Bill 1094 — was one of 65 bills Ritter signed Monday.
Among the more significant bills on that list is one that guarantees some workers unpaid time off to attend parent-teacher conferences, another that eliminates the state sales-tax exemption for cigarettes and another that provides a tax credit to investors of startup technology companies.
The Democratic governor has another busy day of signings scheduled for today, when he is expected to sign a bill putting state lands off-limits to the Army's proposed expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, among others.
DENVER POST 6.2.2009
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