State Sen. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, expresses surprise that Missouri still doesn’t have a law in the books to curb distracted driving. His proposed legislation looks to prevent people from using cellphones to text while driving. He joins a growing group of Missouri lawmakers looking to get this legislation to the governor’s desk.
“Just common sense tells you that that is a bad idea to drive down the road and be looking down at your cellphone, however it is a bad habit that, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ve all done,” explained Sen. Razer. “We picked up this bad habit and we need to put it down.”
His piece of legislation does allow voice-to-text as well as connecting your cellphone through your vehicle’s dashboard through Bluetooth. He said you can read your text with a simple press of a button when you’re behind the wheel.
“We factored that into the legislation and have run it past several partners that have helped us craft this bill,” added Sen. Razer. “If you have Bluetooth, if you have Apple CarPlay, if it only takes you pressing one button to send or receive a message, you can still do that. If you’re driving down the road and a text message comes in and you can reach over and just hit ‘read message’ and then respond without touching anything else, that’s still fine, you’re still keeping the eyes on the road.”
Razer said MoDOT officials support the legislation because they feel the awareness of it passing could make vehicle crashes go down by 7%. In total, there are at least six bills looking to curb distracted driving.
His bill was heard in a Senate Transportation Committee, but a vote hasn’t yet taken place.
Click here for more information on Senate Bill 61.
