Police: Texting bans are hard to enforce but help raise awareness

on September 05, 2011 at 7:00 AM, updated September 05, 2011 at 7:07 AM
Texting  Driving Ban_Bran.jpgView full sizeMany metro Birmingham cities have texting bans for drivers but there's been little enforcement, officials acknowledge. (AP file photo)

Vestavia Hills city prosecutor Michael Trucks can count on one hand the number of citations city police have issued for texting while driving since the city passed a ban on the act last year.


That case involved a driver who police suspected was drunk because his car was moving erratically. When the officer questioned the driver about his behavior, the driver confessed to texting and later paid his ticket, avoiding a day in court, Trucks said.

"To my knowledge, we've only had that one case," Trucks said.

It was an open-and-shut case for Vestavia Hills police and a rare instance of police catching someone in the act.

At least seven metro area cities, including Birmingham, have bans on texting while driving, but police and officials in most of those cities said they haven't cited anyone for the act since passing laws last year.

Police say enforcing bans on texting is difficult because it's hard to tell exactly what a driver is doing in the car unless officers can see the actual act of texting occurring.

"I've not prosecuted any so far," Trucks said. "It is a very difficult offense to prosecute. A police officer would almost have to look in the car and see you holding the device up and texting."

Vestavia Hills was the first city in the metro area to pass a ban on texting in May 2010. But in a span of five months after that, Adamsville, Lipscomb, Midfield, Springville, Birmingham and Trussville all followed suit by passing laws banning the act.

Efforts to get traffic citation data from Birmingham were unsuccessful, but police or city officials in the other cities -- with the exception of Vestavia Hills -- all said they were unaware of a single ticket being issued for texting while driving.

Trussville's law passed in September 2010 and banned all forms of distracted driving, including eating, drinking or reading behind the wheel.

More of a deterrent

Trussville police have not ticketed any drivers for distracted driving, but issuing citations is only part of the equation, police Chief Don Sivley said. The law has one major function, he said. "It's meant more as a deterrent than anything else."

Vestavia Hills police Lt. Brian Gilham agrees. "It really is the spirit of the law we're trying to get out," Gilham said. "We want to make people think twice before they do it."

Less than two weeks ago, an 18-year-old woman and her 10-month-old son were killed in an accident on Interstate 65 in Chilton County, and authorities said the woman was texting when she lost control of her vehicle. So far in Alabama this year, there have been five fatal crashes with six people killed where cellphone use or texting was mentioned, according to the Alabama Department of Public Safety.

Police generally agree that distracted driving laws are tough to enforce but see a need to educate the public on the subject and make them aware of the dangers.

"If people know it's illegal, hopefully they won't do it," Adamsville police Chief Robert Carter said.

While catching motorists in the act is difficult, officers can try to identify texting motorists based on the results of their actions, Carter said. There usually are visual cues that indicate someone is not paying attention to the road, he said.

"If they are willing to confess what they're doing, we'll write the ticket," Carter said. "I usually ask people if they have any particular reason for what they're doing."

Statewide push

Other cities such as Bessemer and Irondale considered texting-while-driving laws but did not pass bans.

Mayors in several other cities, including Alabaster, Hoover, Moody and Pelham, have said Alabama should have a statewide ban rather than relying on city ordinances. Different rules in different jurisdictions make it confusing for drivers, particularly when drivers can't always tell in which city they're driving, some say.

A bill that would have banned all drivers in Alabama from texting and driving passed the Alabama House of Representatives the past two years but died in the Senate each year. However, a law did go into effect last year that bans drivers ages 16 and 17 who have had a license for less than six months from using cell phones while driving.

Carter, in Adamsville, said texting bans are "feel-good" laws, but he applauded lawmakers for passing them.

"If you take your eyes off the road for a split second, ... you can be involved in a serious accident," he said.

In 2009, 5,474 people were killed on U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Distracted driving comes in various forms, such as cellphone use, texting while driving, eating, drinking, and talking with passengers, as well as using in-vehicle technologies and portable electronic devices. The under-20 age group made up the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes (16 percent), followed by 20-to-29-year-olds (13 percent), according to the federal agency.

Despina Stavrinos, an assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Transportation Center, said texting bans are an important first step in combating distracted driving. Stavrinos said she does research with teens and young adults on the subject of distracted driving and finds such bans give parents an opportunity to educate young drivers that actions such as texting while behind the wheel are illegal.

Stavrinos said the impact of texting bans and distracted driving laws can be best compared to the impact seat belt laws had on drivers.

"It's second nature now to get into a car and put on your seat belt," she said. "That wasn't the case a couple of decades ago. ... That primary law that came into place has really helped shift our perspectives about seatbelts. We can follow that sort of model with distracted driving."


At least seven metro area cities ban sending or reading text messages while driving:

  • Adamsville
  • Birmingham
  • Lipscomb
  • Midfield
  • Springville
  • Trussville*
  • Vestavia Hills

* Trussville bans all forms of distracted driving, including eating, drinking or reading behind the wheel.

News staff writer David White contributed to this article.

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