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Colorado Lawmakers Reject Measure To Ban Cellphone Use In Cars

Valarie Smith
/
High Plains Public Radio

Despite testimony about loved ones who have died in car crashes caused by distracted driving, a proposal to ban the use of cellphones for all Colorado drivers was rejected by the state’s Republican-led Senate committee Wednesday.

As The Denver Post reports, the measure would have prohibited the use of hand-held mobile devices for talking and texting without a hands-free device but failed in a 3-2 vote by the Senate committee.

Lawmakers approved harsher penalties for texting while driving during the last legislative session, increasing the fine for doing so from $50 to $300 and from one to four points on a driver’s license. That law includes language saying that texting and driving is illegal only if it’s done in a “careless and impudent manner.”

The Republican committee members felt a tougher law wasn’t needed.

The panel’s GOP majority also struck down a bill that would have required seatbelt use by all passengers in a vehicle and would have allowed law enforcement to stop drivers solely for failure to wear a seatbelt.