At the Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting Monday, Mayor Pat Kelly suggested he’d like to ban texting while driving for all ages in Brentwood.
State law prohibits texting only for drivers 21 and younger. Kelly said that law is “kind of silly.”
Also Monday night, the city of Manchester passed a bill prohibiting texting while driving for all drivers, regardless of age, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Kelly said the Manchester police chief hopes the new law will reduce accidents on Manchester Road and Route 141. Florissant already has the law.
Kelly said if more municipalities prohibited everyone from texting while driving maybe the state would follow.
“We’ll see how it goes in Manchester and maybe get a copy of the ordinance and bring it back to Public Safety (Committee),” he said.
“I just think it would be kind of a good idea,” he said, though he admitted it might be hard to enforce.
I agree that Anit-Texting laws should be state and federal laws as well. Texting drivers are as dangerous as drunk drivers. There is no logical explainaton to support allowing this. Would you allow a driver to read a book while driving. Reading texts and emails on you phone are the same thing, They should not be allowed anywhere. My wife and I support this cause for the City of Brentwood.
Not that I text and drive; but how is one to know what municipalities ban this and which don’t? And given our weird boundaries in the metro area; even if you did know how would you know where exactly you were? This kind of law is only ok if its posted on every street leading into a municipality.
It should be a state law. Easy to know what state you’re in. Distracted driver laws already make enforcement possible in every city, but people who text are too stupid to understand they are already breaking the law, so it has to be spelled out for them in TEXT, in a law that specifies it.
Anit-Texting laws should be state and federal laws as well. Texting drivers are as dangerous as drunk drivers, in my opinion. Also, I think a check of phone and/or phone records should be part of every accident investigation, and result in loss of license if the driver was texting at the time of the accident.