Originally published in the Northfield News on 1/16/18
As anyone who drives our Minnesota roadways can tell you, distracted driving is reaching a crisis level in our state. While making the twice weekly drive from Madison Lake to our state capitol, I often observe motorists engaging in reckless behavior such as texting while driving, watching YouTube on iPads, or even shaving or applying make-up as they drive. While we all know these kinds of behaviors are dangerous, and in some cases already illegal, the problem continues to grow.
As the 2019 state legislative session begins in St. Paul, I am a part of a bipartisan coalition of legislators, from both Metro and Greater Minnesota, united in addressing distracted driving in our state. While there are multiple approaches to tackling this issue, and as a result, multiple pieces of legislation, the goal is the same: making our roadways safer.
This session, I have chief-authored two bills on the subject. The first, SF 129, requires all driver education courses and the Minnesota driver’s manual to cover instruction on distracted driving, including but not limited to the dangers of distracted driving, the laws governing distracted driving, and the related penalties. Currently, the Minnesota driver’s manual contains less than a page of information on distracted driving. Yet, teachers are required to spend at least thirty minutes covering organ and tissue donation and instruct students on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. While both of those issues are important, distracted driving deserves at least as much attention in our classrooms and instruction manual. Just as educating our students about the dangers of smoking lead to a decrease in cigarette usage, the same logic can be applied to distracted driving.
The second bill, SF 139, increases the penalties for texting while driving, specifically targeting repeat offenders. Further, the legislation greatly increases the fines for texting while driving and significantly increases the penalty for those who cause substantial bodily harm in an accident. It is commonsense that we cannot reduce distracted driving in Minnesota without appropriately punishing those who engage in that behavior.
In addition to these bills, there are multiple legislators working on numerous other pieces of legislation that target distracted driving. I am especially encouraged by the bipartisan nature of these discussions. By working across the aisle on a comprehensive approach, I am optimistic that the legislature will pass legislation that tackles distracted driving this session.