Senate passes bill to ban texting for drivers

Measure headed to House would override cities’ local ordinances

Texas lawmakers are moving ahead with a plan to make their rules the rules of the road for mobile phone use.

State senators on Wednesday by a 20-11 vote passed a bill that would strip cities of their authority to enact mobile phone bans while driving, essentially leaving the state’s upcoming texting ban as the only limit on phone use in Texas. The bill moves to the Texas House, where lawmakers have been more supportive of handheld phone bans in the past.

The statewide texting ban goes into effect Sept. 1, while all city rules on phone use would be null and void under Senate Bill 15. State laws already restrict minors from using a handheld device and use of a wireless device in a school zone.

The bill approved Wednesday was sought by Gov. Greg Abbott as part of his special session agenda. The bill by Sen. Don Huffines, R-Greenville, preempts local rules such as those in Sugar Land and 44 other cities that prohibit all phone use behind the wheel. Another 50 cities have some form of a phone or texting ban for drivers.

“The majority of our residents told us that what was most important was a total handheld ban,” said Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman, citing the months of discussion and study that went into the city’s ordinance.

Those various rules, however, make for a patchwork of local laws across metro areas where someone could face two or three different sets of rules on their daily drive, Huffines said.

“What I am asking is we have clear and concise laws for the driving public,” Huffines said. “We don’t need rules of the road that are different.”

‘Giant step backward’

Critics of the bill, notably Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said the effect of removing local phone bans would be to make Texas streets less safe. Zaffirini called Huffines’ bill a “giant step backward.”

Zaffirini, who supports a total ban on handheld devices statewide, proposed toughening the new texting ban to cover all phone use, offered as an amendment to Huffines’ bill.

“We should adopt (a bill) that is stronger, not weaker, and more enforceable, not less,” Zaffirini said.

The new Texas law bans texting while driving for all motorists, but has a number of exceptions. People still will be allowed to use their phones to control the stereo or use a mapping program.

In 2015, the Texas House passed a bill to prohibit all handheld phone use while driving, but the bill failed in the Senate later that year. Before and after that bill failed to gain traction, cities — citing the dangers of phone use behind the wheel — swooped in to enforce safer streets.

Zimmerman said the proposed preemption of local rules means Sugar Land streets will be less safe than they are today.

‘No protection’

“The state decided they knew what’s best for the residents of Sugar Land, who 62 percent told us they wanted a total ban,” he said.

In discussions with Sugar Land Police, Zimmerman said he has come to believe a texting-only ban with exceptions leaves police unable to determine whether someone is following the law.

“In effect, you have no ordinance and no protection,” he said.