AAA South Dakota Urges Passage Of “Texting While Driving” Bill

NEWS from AAA South Dakota, Jan. 31 – South Dakota Sen. Craig Tieszen’s bill to make texting while driving illegal in the state has won the endorsement of AAA South Dakota.

In a letter to members of the South Dakota Legislature, AAA spokesman Mark Madeja said, “AAA South Dakota strongly supports Sen. Tieszen’s bill for two reasons: 1) our members tell us they rate text messaging and emailing while driving as a very serious threat to their safety on the road, and 2) drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to crash or get into a near-crash situation than drivers who are not texting,” according to a 2009 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study.

Thirty states, Washington, D.C. and Guam have laws outlawing texting while driving, AAA says. Eleven of these state laws were passed in 2010.

“Frankly, I can’t think of a more dangerous activity one can engage in behind the wheel,” said Madeja in his letter to legislators. “Texting drivers take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel and their minds off of what they should be doing: driving.”

With reports of texting while driving on the rise, it’s clear education and enforcing existing laws isn’t working, Madeja said.

Studies have shown the average time reading and writing a message is 4.5 seconds, enough time to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.

Enforcement of a texting law will present special challenges but the tell-tale bobbing of the head as the driver texts and drives is a dead giveaway, Madeja says. However, some texters say they are so good at texting, they can do it blindfolded. In these cases, the texting law would be enforced just as DUI laws are now, at the time the driver is stopped for another offense.  

AAA is urging members of the South Dakota Legislature to send a clear message to motorists that texting while driving is so dangerous, it’s against the law.

The auto club is also encouraging South Dakotans who favor a ban to write to their local legislators and let them know how they feel about the matter.

To find the names and contact information for specific legislators by district, go to www.legis.state.sd.us.