Senate votes to ban texting while driving, but draws line at talking

A bill at the state Capitol to outlaw cell phone use for drivers played a game of chicken in the Senate on Monday, and the bill's sponsor swerved first.

As written, HB1094 originally would have prohibited drivers from talking on cell phones without the use of a hands-free device, such as a Bluetooth. The measure was initially approved by the House but was gutted in the Senate, and in its final version only bans text messaging. Another provision that survived the cut was prohibits minors from using cell phones at all while driving.

"This is an eighth of a loaf," said Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins. "Better to have two or three slices than none."

Bacon said he was forced to agree to the changes, because he couldn't garner enough Democratic votes to pass the original bill.

Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Aurora, exemplified Democratic opposition to the bill. She said that studies have found that the sound of crying babies is actually an effective interrogation method for police and the military.

"So are you going to tell me now that it should be illegal for me to have a crying baby in my car?" Hudak asked. "That's the slippery slope that we get into with this bill."

Hudak's comments came after Republicans spent almost half an hour slamming Bacon's bill.

Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, complained about an exemption for commercial truckers, as well as police and firefighters.

"If a person in a little Fiat is on a cell phone, whose car weighs a couple thousand pounds, somehow that's supposedly more dangerous than a person with a 10,000-pound vehicle? What's with that?" Schultheis said.

Then Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, called the measure "ridiculous," and questioned the bill for only prohibiting cell phones while cars are in motion.

"At every stoplight, watch from now on, if we pass this bill. Everybody's going to get out and do all their texting at every stoplight," King said.

Bacon did the best he could on Monday, first agreeing to one amendment that weakened his measure significantly, by only allowing drivers to be ticketed for cell phone use if they were first pulled over for another offense, such as speeding. Then a second amendment was offered by the Democrats, which lowered the bar again to outlaw only text messaging while driving. It was then that Bacon threw up his hands in defeat.

Afterward, Bacon promised the bill would return next year, and said regretfully that its passage would likely need political pressure, created by more phone-related accidents.

"In reality, there are going to have to be more high-profile cases," Bacon said.

Phones will only continue to make driving more dangerous, Bacon predicted. He pointed to video and camera uses of phones, which are legal to use while driving, and said phones will get only more distracting as time goes on.

Five other states and the District of Columbia prohibit cell phones for motorists.

HB 1094 will likely be approved quickly by the House on Tuesday before the Legislative session ends on Wednesday.