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.