Panel kills SD plan to ban texting while driving

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota legislative committee has killed a bill that would have banned texting while driving statewide, despite sometimes-tearful testimony from people whose loved ones have been killed in texting-related wrecks.

The bill was rejected Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee. Police chiefs, insurance lobbyists, a grief-stricken widow and the man who killed her husband all testified in support of the ban. No one testified against the bill, which previously had passed the Senate.