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Distracted Driving

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Distracted Driving in North Dakota
• I would like to lobby for the ban of use of cellular communication devices while driving for all drivers, particularly use of hand held devices. I would like to address this as a state wide issue in North Dakota, however, this issue can also be tackled as a local or federal issue. Cell phone use while driving or “distracted driving” is a public safety issue. Distracted driving is a major cause of motor vehicle accidents in both novice drivers and experienced drivers (Klauer, Guo, Simons-Morton, Ouimet, Lee & Dingus, 2013).
• In North Dakota, current distracted driving law went into effect 8/2011, text messaging (only) prohibited for all drivers (HB 1195 and HB 1256) and under age 18, there is a ban of use of any electronic communication devices while driving, cellular and hands free (Hands free info, 2014).
• In ND, violation of these laws are primary offenses, meaning that you can be pulled over for that offense alone. The current penalty is a fine of $100. In 2009, Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck, saw his legislation to ban text messaging for drivers defeated in the House on a 60-34 vote. The law would have included a fine of up to $100 fine and a 2-point license penalty for first offenders. Subsequent violations would have brought a 4-point penalty. The bill was modeled after Minnesota law, however people thought that this penalty was too harsh (Hands free info, 2014).
• In Bismarck, ND during a 2 day sweep by the police department, 31 tickets were given for violation of the texting while driving law.
• In the US in 2012, more than 3300 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers and more than 421,000 were injured due to distracted drivers. Of these distracted drivers, cell phones are often the leading distraction of identified distraction causes (Chase, 2014)
• Crash risk increases significantly (up

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