{"id":8544,"date":"2015-03-12T03:18:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T03:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2015-03-12T03:18:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T03:18:55","slug":"texas-moves-closer-to-texting-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8544","title":{"rendered":"Texas moves closer to texting ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

Texas legislators have taken the state an important step closer to enacting a much-needed state law.<\/p>\n

The House Transportation Committee has endorsed House Bill\u00a080, which enacts a statewide ban on texting while driving.<\/p>\n

May I hear a “yee-haw!”?<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2015\/03\/10\/texting-while-driving-ban-voted-out-committee\/<\/p>\n

The bill’s author, former House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, expressed elation at the committee’s recommendation. \u201cI truly believe this legislation will ultimately save lives,” Craddick said.<\/p>\n

The committee approved the bill unanimously. How about that?<\/p>\n

Texas is one of just six states that hasn’t enacted bans on this ridiculous behavior. Cities all across the state — including Amarillo — have enacted ordinances banning the activity. I get that it remains problematical for police to always enforce the ban. But the ordinance is needed and Amarillo was right to approve it.<\/p>\n

Now it’s the state’s turn to get on board.<\/p>\n

Local state representatives, such as Four Price, R-Amarillo, have endorsed the statewide ban, only to have it vetoed by the governor. Rick Perry vetoed legislation enacted by the 2011 Legislature, contending — foolishly, in my view — that it sought to “micromanage” motorists’ behavior behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

Perry is no longer governor. Greg Abbott is in the office now and he’s not yet revealed whether he would sign he bill into law or veto it.<\/p>\n

Good grief, Gov. Abbott, millions of Texans want you to sign the bill, make it law and then instruct the Department of Public Safety to crack down on the brain-dead chuckleheads who cannot grasp the obvious danger they put themselves\u00a0and — more importantly\u00a0—\u00a0other\u00a0motorists when they insist on sending text messages while driving their motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

Now it’s up to the entire 181-member Texas Legislature to approve this bill and get it sent to Gov. Abbott’s desk.<\/p>\n

And governor? Sign it into law.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas legislators have taken the state an important step closer to enacting a much-needed state law. The House Transportation Committee has endorsed House Bill\u00a080, which enacts a statewide ban on texting while driving. May I hear a “yee-haw!”? https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2015\/03\/10\/texting-while-driving-ban-voted-out-committee\/ The bill’s author, former House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, expressed elation at the committee’s recommendation. \u201cI … Continue reading Texas moves closer to texting ban<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}