Texting bill sent to hearing

BOISE (AP) - Lawmakers are making another run at banning texting while driving after legislation in past sessions stalled.

The Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday voted to consider making texting while driving an infraction.

It's now due a full hearing.

Sen. Jim Hammond of Coeur d'Alene is sponsoring the bill that would put those who review or manually prepare texts on wireless devices at risk of fines, if they're caught by law-enforcement officers.

The Republican legislator said he is confident his bill 1274 will fare better than previous attempts at texting bans because of its sparseness, a mere two paragraphs.

"Idaho doesn't have a texting law because previous attempts got hung up in the Legislature based on concerns about language or enforcement," Hammond said. "You'll see this is a very simple bill."

Hammond believes his bill has a better chance than another proposed law to make an infraction of cell phone use of any kind while driving, which he said would be rendered moot by the growing popularity of hands-free communication devices.

The lawmaker added that the parents of a young woman who recently died in a car accident because she was texting will speak in support of the bill when it goes before committee.

"There are many things that can distract you from driving, whether it's conversation, putting on makeup, trying to eat while you drive. But the issue with texting is that it takes such a great concentration to check or send messages," Hammond said. "I just emphasize that maybe this is more than just inattentive driving. Maybe we need to particularly specify and call this in the law as something inappropriate and unsafe and illegal."

Hammond's bill carves out an exception for law enforcement and emergency personnel.

The closest a ban got to passing Idaho's Legislature was in 2010, when now-Congressman Raul Labrador succeeded in blocking a similar measure on a procedural move.

Coeur d'Alene Press staff contributed to this story.