A bill put forth by Dr. Jim McClendon (R-Springville) that would ban the use of text messaging while driving in the state was passed last Thursday by a legislative committee and should soon be on debate on the floor of the Statehouse within the next few weeks.

The bill, which drew support from Alabama House Public Safety Committee, was passed as-is without any dissent from legislators.

Rep. McClendon said that the first part of his bill was introducing legislature in support of public sentiment and he said “it flew over” with state representatives.

“I’ve been contacted from all around the state by people who are fed up with people on the road [texting] and they wanted to see something done about that,” McClendon said. “They are fed up with drivers that are not paying attention to driving.”

He also said that he was happy that he had “good support” from the Public Safety Committee and is eagerly anticipating the bill’s next step as it moves to the floor of the house.

The bill should be assigned to the calendar for debate soon.

“Within next few weeks it comes up for debate in the House and we’ll see how that goes,” he said.

He said of the House members he has spoken with, “I know their constituents are supportive of this measure and I know that people want to see something done about this.”

The bill would impose a $25 fine for the first violation.

Another bill proposed by McClendon dealing with banning hand-held cell phones while driving was killed by the Public Safety Committee.

A second bill dealing with public safety designed to eliminate the use of handheld devices that McClendon put before the same committee was killed in a three to five vote.

One St. Clair Representative, Randy Wood, voted to not put that bill up for a vote despite an appeal by Jason Robinson of the National Safety Council.

St. Clair Representative Owen Drake was in support of that proposal.

“The public opinion that I heard is that they would like to have cell phones banned,” Representative Drake said of McClendon’s handheld measure. “I think that as long as you’re not using your hands to call then it’s like talking to someone in the car.”

On the texting bill that will go up for vote, Drake said, “Texting requires you to look at what you’re doing and you have to take your eyes off the road and it’s not a good thing. I’ve seen statistics that say that people talking on cell phones is as bad as talking as bad as drunk drivers. I believe that it’s true. In this day in time and even in town it’s not good to multi-task while driving. It just takes your attention away form the primary responsibility of driving your vehicle.

Jason Robinson of the National Safety Council made a presentation to lawmakers before the handheld device measure was shot down and said that his organization, which is based out of Chicago, is at the beginning of a process to eliminate handheld devices while driving.

In January, the National Safety Council called on all 50 states to ban handheld devices while driving.

Robinson was frank about the likelihood of that proposal being passed. “It’s something that’s not going to be accomplished in the near future. But it’s a good first step. We’re going to continue to work for what we do and take the steps we can take and try to make the roads safer.”

According to the Harbor Center for Risk Analysis, cell phone use is direct cause of over 600,000 wrecks every year. That breaks down to 10,000 wrecks in Alabama and 200 severe injuries and death just in the state. The center also cited that 80 percent of wrecks are caused by driver distraction.

“Everything from talking to someone in car, cell phone, reaching for coffee or something else poses a hazard,” Robinson said. “On any given day up to 100 million Americans are on a cell phone in a car. While on their cell, studies have shown that drivers have the same reaction delay as drunk drivers. We’ve got essentially 100 million Americans essentially driving drunk. But you can turn off your cell phone.”