PHOENIX — It looks like the state’s newest drivers will continue to be able to text and chat on their cellphones.
Rep. Phil Lovas, R-Peoria, who chairs the House Rules Committee, confirmed Wednesday he is refusing to give a hearing to a Senate-passed bill that would make the use of hand-held communication devices illegal for teens during the first six months they have a license.
Lovas said he is “personally ambivalent” about making the practice illegal. Instead, Lovas said he is reflecting the views of some other legislators.
“I’ve heard from other members,” he said.
“The concern is this is the camel’s nose under the tent when it comes to texting and driving,” Lovas said. Once Arizona enacts its first-ever restrictions, no matter how minimal, it potentially becomes easier to expand the law so that more people are barred from driving while texting.
He did not name names.
Lovas said his refusal to act on the bill, which has been ready for action for more than a month, does not necessarily mean it’s dead.
Lovas’ refusal to advance the bill annoyed Rep. Karen Fann, R-Prescott, who shepherded SB 1080 through the Senate on a 24-6 margin. The bill also was approved by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure by a 7-1 vote.
She pointed out that the Rules Committee, unlike other panels, is not supposed to debate the policy merits of a measure.
Instead, Fann said, the only issue for that committee to decide is whether a measure is constitutional and in proper form for consideration by the full House. And she said none of the issues Lovas appears to have with the bill fit either category.
The problem, though, is that all measures must go through the Rules Committee before going to the House floor. And that gives Lovas the unilateral power to quash anything he does not like.
Fann said if Lovas has concerns, there’s an easy way for him to express those.
“If he wants to vote ‘no’ on it, either in committee or on the floor, that’s certainly his prerogative,” she said.
What is in SB 1080 is minimal.
It would impose the ban on talking and texting to only those with a Class G license — the first license available to teens — for the first six months they on the road.
And it makes the violation a “secondary offense.”
That means police officers cannot stop a teen solely because they see the driver with a cell phone. Instead, a citation could be issued only if the motorist is stopped for some other reason.
Fann pointed out there already are restrictions on Class G drivers, ranging from having no more than one unrelated teen in the vehicle to a ban on driving between midnight and 5 a.m. without a parent present unless it’s for something like going to work.
The Insurance Institute for Highways Safety says 37 states and the District of Columbia restrict the use of cellphones by “novice drivers,” with 14 of those states and D.C. making it illegal for anyone to talk on a hand-held cellphone.
IIHS also reports that text messaging is banned for an drivers in 46 states and the District of Columbia, with two other states banning texting by new motorists.
Despite the reluctance of Arizona lawmakers to act, several communities have enacted the own driving-while-texting bans, including Tucson and Phoenix and Pima County.
