It’s no April Fool’s joke – starting on April 1st, texting while driving will be illegal in the city of Tucson. It shouldn’t have to be a law since common sense should remind us all that when you are driving – you should be paying attention to driving and what’s going on around the road.
Some facts about the new ordinance:
States that it is violation to compose or send a text message while driving.
What about reading a text? If you are in your car and it’s moving – it’s a violation.
It’s limited, but public safety workers are somewhat exempt from this violation when they are working and its part of their official duties.
It’s a primary enforcement violation – one ticket instead of two. In other words, it’s not like Tucson’s seat belt law, if a police officer sees you driving down the road texting, they can pull you over and write a ticket. They don’t have to stop you for speeding or any other violation, write a ticket for that and then write you one for texting.
Minimum fines: no accident and texting - $100; accident and texting $250.
Is reading a text while stopped at a red light allowed? Probably. The longest traffic light in Tucson is 52 seconds - a little longer during rush hours (I know it seems like forever some days – but really red lights don’t last that long.) That’s not a lot of time – so use your best judgment.
One of the problems? Enforcing it for one and for another, people will text and drive anyway because some just don’t use common sense.
Best thing to do? Keep your hands at 10 and 2 (o'clock) on your steering wheel and pay attention while driving.
Hmmm … maybe April Fool’s Day is a good day for this violation to begin!!
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