Listen to me, Gov. Greg Abbott. Read my lips: Sign House Bill 62 into law, the one that makes texting while driving illegal throughout the state of Texas!
Do it! Don’t waffle because of technicalities. The Texas Tribune reports — which I am sure you’ve read already — that you believe texting while driving a motor vehicle poses a grave danger to Texans.
HB 62 is on your desk, as I also am sure you know. It’s there along with a lot of other bills approved by the Legislature.
Your immediate predecessor as governor, Rick Perry, never should have vetoed a similar bill in 2011. Remember how he called it a “government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.” I mean, good grief, man. If you follow that logic, then such micromanagement means we shouldn’t have laws prohibiting drinking while driving, either; hey, let’s take down all the speed limit signs and let Texas push their pedals to the metal whenever and wherever they feel like it.
I hear you’re concerned that HB 62 doesn’t do enough to pre-empt local ordinances. Your spokesman, John Wittman, told the Tribune: “One thing Governor Abbott wanted in a texting while driving ban was a pre-emption of the patchwork quilt of local regulations across the state, and he’s looking forward to digging into the details of HB 62.”
OK, I get it.
Indeed, a statewide ban would bring much-needed continuity to Texas’ rules of the road. Visitors to the state need to know that operating a hand-held device while driving a motor vehicle is illegal anywhere within the state’s borders. Post signs at every highway entry point into Texas telling motorists to put their texting devices away as they enter the state. Texas residents might not need reminding; visitors from out of state, though, do need it.
Gov. Abbott, you’ve got a chance to exercise some needed executive authority by signing a necessary bill into law. House Bill 62 does something that should have been done when these texting devices became so damn ubiquitous. They’re everywhere, but there ought to be some limitations on when human beings should be allowed to operate them.
Driving a motor vehicle at high speeds through traffic and among pedestrians is one of those instances.
Sign the bill, Gov. Abbott.