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Cellphone driving ban proposals aired at State House

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 11, 2009 02:01 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Staff

A grieving mother whose daughter may have died because she was checking a text message as she drove her car in Charlton told a legislative committee today that a law banning texting while driving could save lives.

Amanda Martin

Melissa Martin of Southbridge said after testifying before the Transportation Committee that even if such legislation doesn't pass, she hopes her daughter's story will discourage other teenagers from being distracted by texting while driving.

"To me, it's worth it just to tell her story," she said.

In October 2007, Amanda Martin, a 17-year-old high school student, was killed when her car went off the road and hit a tree as she drove to school. Police said they believed text messaging might have been to blame for the accident because she received a message at 7:22 a.m., and the accident occurred three minutes later.

More than a dozen bills limiting the use of cellphones were discussed at the hearing as questions grow about whether using the devices while driving can be a deadly distraction.

Nobody testified against the bills.

"Texting while driving has become the new drunk driving. You can tell someone is on their cellphone just by the way they're driving," said Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, one of those who testified.

Senator Steven Baddour, the Senate chairman of the committee, said members pretty much all agreed that text messaging should be banned while driving.

Using cellphones "is part of our life. We do it all the time. But what we need to do is a better job of reminding people that when they're behind the wheel, it's their responsibility to just drive."

The panel is considering 15 bills that would impose bans on texting or bans on both texting and cellphone calls, according to the office of Representative Joseph Wagner, House chairman of the committee.

The latest boost for the bills came after Aiden Quinn, a 24-year-old MBTA Green Line trolley operator, told authorities last month that he was sending his girlfriend a text message when he missed a red light and slammed his trolley into another stopped trolley near Government Center Station. The crash destroyed three trolleys and injured nearly 50 people.

The Senate recently voted for a budget amendment that would ban texting while driving. A House-Senate conference committee has been working to hammer out a compromise budget. But other proposals are pending in the Legislature as stand-alone bills.

Wagner said last month he supported legislation that would ban both texting and cellphone use without a hands-free device.