INDIANAPOLIS – A bill to make you put down your phone while driving could get a final vote in the Senate next week.
Indiana would be the 27th state to tell you to use your phone hands-free or not at all. INDOT Commissioner Joe McGuinness says nearly one in five crashes in Indiana is caused by someone on his phone. In 2018, those crashes killed 39 people, injured more than five-thousand, and caused 900-million dollars in damage.
As in the House, a Senate committee heard from a string of witnesses in wheelchairs, and grieving parents and grandparents, all victimized by drivers distracted by their phones. Westfield Mayor Andy Cook, who previously testified in the House, says the pickup driver who killed his young grandson in 2018 was driving a company truck equipped with cameras. He says the video shows the driver’s attention flitting between the road and his phone, until a longer look at his phone just before the rear-end collision.
The driver in that case was sentenced to 10-to-15 years in prison, for what Cook notes wasn’t a crime until the moment of impact.
The bill passed a Senate committee 8-1. Crawfordsville Republican Phil Boots cast the only no vote, predicting the law won’t solve the problem of distracted driving any more than Indiana’s existing ban on texting while driving has. That law is considered unenforceable. Boots argues even if the new bill solves that problem, it still won’t fix other distractions like video players or a dashboard-mounted phone. State Police Superintendent Doug Carter responds phone use among teenagers has dropped by more than half in states which already have bans. And he says Indiana saw dramatic increases in seat belt use after making it mandatory. He concedes the law won’t eliminate phone use at the wheel, but predicts it will have a similarly significant impact.
The full Senate could vote as early as Monday. If it passes, the House will have to re-approve it to accept a minor change in the wording. The original version passed the House 86-10.
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