Ohio Police Say They Can Arrest Texters Without Ban

Posted on April 11, 2012

The state of Ohio might not have in place a ban on texting while driving, but that’s not stopping police officials from citing drivers who engage in such a practice.

Confused?  A representative from the Strongsville Police Department claims that laws on the books already make such behavior illegal, and so it’s unnecessary to have a texting while driving ban.  The law being referred to, known as the “full time and attention” law, is intended to prevent people from engaging in any type of behavior that distracts them from the task at hand.  Eating, cell phone talking, and yes, texting, all fall under the purview of this law.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol has recently estimated that sending a text, or even reading one, will distract a driver from the road for 4.6 seconds on average.  This would add up to an astounding 100 yards if the vehicles travels at 55 miles per hour, and the distance would increase from there.

This lengthy span of having eyes away from the road could be the reason that 74 people died in Ohio between the years 2009 and 2011.  This was amid a total of 31,231 crashes that were caused by a driver distraction.

It’s interesting to me as a car accident lawyer in Riverside to see cops using creative ways to cite drivers.  In California, we of course have a texting ban in place, but I still keep tabs on the kinds of things that other states are doing to prevent distractions.  I’ll be curious as a Riverside personal injury attorney to see if Ohio ever gets its texting ban, or if they even need to.

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