It’s not easy to be caught texting behind the wheel in Virginia.
Under the six-month-old ban, a police officer can’t pull over an otherwise law-abiding motorist even if he’s mashing the keys in plain sight. Even if an officer finds another cause to make a stop, the fine for a violation costs $20 for a first offense and $50 for the next.
While the restriction on sending electronic messages on the road passed the General Assembly last year with much fanfare, observers criticized its weak fine structure and status as a secondary offense — one that can’t in itself prompt a traffic stop — to frame it as toothless.
“It really does send mixed signals about whether we’re serious about enforcing this if you make it a secondary offense,” said Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, who has proposed a bill to make texting while driving a primary offense. “It rather does hamstring our police officers.”
He called the original 2009 legislation “a great first step” that is better than nothing. With a restaurant and bar smoking ban, the texting bill marked a rare departure from the General Assembly’s traditional laissez-faire approach to personal behavior. Bulova acknowledged that efforts to strengthen its enforcement “may be a long shot.”
The ban’s effect is poorly understood in Virginia. The Virginia State Police, local police and AAA did not have statistics available Monday on the number of citations issued for texting behind the wheel. Officials said they expected the incidents to be few.
“We knew when we fought for the law that it was going to be somewhat difficult to enforce,” said Martha Meade, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic auto club. “However, it is such a dangerous activity that we felt it was very important and certainly hoped that it would serve as a deterrent.”
Almost 6,000 people in 2008 died in crashes with a distracted or inattentive driver, with about half a million others injured, according to a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study.
