Senate moves to ban texting while driving
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- July
- 16
The Senate just passed legislation to prohibit text messaging while driving and increase safety measures for teen drivers. The bill, which the Assembly approved last month, would prohibit using any portable electronic device while driving. That includes phones, laptops, pagers, electronic games and other gadgets.
Under the legislation, fines could only be imposed as a secondary offense, when a driver gets pulled over for violating another law. The maximum fine would be $150.
“This bill hopefully in New York State will put an end to the text messaging problem that we have,” said Sen. Carl Marcellino, R-Nassau County, who called the practice a “terrible scourge.”
Marcellino said many people admit to texting while driving, including adults.
The vote on the bill was 56-1, with Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, Warren County, voting no.
The Senate has passed legislation to ban texting while driving in the past, but this is the first year the Assembly has done so. It will now go to Gov. David Paterson for his consideration, but it is likely he will sign it because the ban was incorporated into a driving safety bill for teens that he proposed.
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on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
