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ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Family members drove home the horrors of distracted driving Tuesday as Minnesota lawmakers took the first step toward a crackdown.
On a voice vote, the House Transportation Finance committee approved a proposal banning drivers from using cell phones unless they’re in hands-free mode. Legislative leaders from both parties have said they expect a bill to pass this session, though it’s unclear whether the bill that advanced Tuesday is in its final form.
Posters featuring the faces of dead loved ones dotted the committee room, providing a backdrop for the debate.
“Everything is safer, but drivers are not,” said Greg LaVallee of Otsego, whose 19-year-old son Phillip, a college athlete, was killed by a distracted driver while on a training run in 2013. “They’re driving off the road, and instead of injuring someone, they’re doing it at full speed and killing someone.”
The bipartisan bill, whose lead sponsor is state Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, would only allow drivers to use cell phones using voice-activated technology or one-touch functionality to access apps like GPS or make phone calls. Sixteen other states and the District of Columbia currently have a hands-free law.
Hornstein sought a change to his own bill Tuesday after finding that it would’ve allowed drivers to repeatedly touch their phones instead of the single-touch activation he’s been advocating.
“We felt that was a loophole, in a sense,” he said of the original version.
The House bill next heads to the Ways and Means committee. A companion bill is scheduled for a public hearing in a Senate committee Wednesday.
Republicans on the House committee raised concerns about how quickly the bill was moving, noting that a fiscal note has not yet been prepared. But only one person formally testified against the measure.
“This bill will only result in the issuance of thousands of tickets, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars, creating a new revenue stream for the counties, states and legal profession,” said Bret Collier of Big Lake.
Advocates for construction safety endorsed the bill, after a year that saw several crashes in work zones. After one such incident, on Interstate 94 in Rogers in October, the Minnesota State Patrol called the crash “preventable.”
MSP Col. Matt Langer said the top cause of distraction is being lost in thought. But drivers are frequently distracted by handheld electronics, he said.
“If we were to wave a magic wand and remove cell phones, iPads, laptops, electronics – handheld devices – from vehicles, I feel like we’d solve a vast majority of things that are likely to distract people,” Langer told lawmakers.