Senate gets prodded on hands-free bill
Victims of distracted driving pressure Beacon Hill
Victims and family members who lost their loved ones to distracted driving met with Senate President Karen Spilka Wednesday in an attempt to pass a bill to ban hand-held use of cellphones while driving amid a racial data fight that has put it on hold.
“They need to understand that every day that goes by they’re risking lives. I know it’s not going to solve everything — this law — but it has to help,” Joann Arsenault told the Herald. “Something has to be done.”
Arsenault, 63, of Pepperell spent three weeks on life support and three and a half months in the hospital and rehab after getting in an accident with a 16-year-old who she said admitted to using a phone while driving after having a license for two days. In addition to internal bleeding and nerve damage, Arsenault suffered a partial amputation to her right foot.
“They’re not seeing the urgency,” President of Safe Roads Alliance Emily Stein said. “They need to understand that they’re letting the safety of the public down if they don’t pass this bill.”
Stein is planning a rally ahead of the Senate’s formal session next week and said that if lawmakers don’t pass the bill during that session, they will hold the Legislature “accountable” for each crash in which someone is hurt or killed due to distracted driving in the days after.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 3,450 people across the country died in 2016 in distraction-related crashes; 45 of those were killed on the streets of Massachusetts, according to AAA Northeast.
Spilka (D-Ashland) said in a statement that she was “very moved” by the stories she heard Wednesday and that the bill, “has been and continues to be a top Senate priority. I am very hopeful it will be resolved soon.”
About 80% of Massachusetts voters want a bill that keeps people from hand-held use of their phones while they’re driving, according to Stein.
Despite nearly universal agreement that banning handheld cellphone use while driving will save lives, the legislation is hung up in a battle over how to collect race data and whether or not to share it with the public. Stein argues that the two issues, which she said both “deserve attention,” should be addressed in separate bills if lawmakers can’t come to an agreement by the end of the session.
An invalid Conference Committee report on the bill has been sitting on a counter in the House Clerk’s office since July 31, awaiting signatures from at least two of the three senators: Joseph Boncore, William Brownsberger and Dean Tran. Reps. William Straus, Timothy Whelan and Joseph Wagner have signed off.
“What we told the Senate President was, to the public, this appears like a Senate vs. House issue and that’s not good,” Stein said. “So show us that that’s not the case by uniting and passing this bill.”