Distracted driving law in effect in Ohio

Oct. 17—The Ohio State Highway Patrol has issued nearly 450 distracted driving citations in Ohio since the law took effect.

For Ohio drivers, it is now illegal to use or hold electronic devices while behind the wheel. Participating in such actions can result in hundreds in fines and points deducted from a driver's license.

Dan Tierney, Ohio Press Secretary for Gov. Mike DeWine, told The Daily Independent the law was designed to increase public safety on the roads.

"The goal here is that anytime somebody's pulled over for violating our traffic safety laws, the objective is to stop the behavior before there's any accident or fatality," Tierney said. "We're hopeful that the awareness of the law will increase safety and we think some of the data we have seen so far shows that's the case."

A six-month grace period went into effect April 4 for drivers to become aware of the new distracted driving law. Since the enforcement of the law (Section 4511.204) in early October, 448 citations have been issued statewide; 29 of those citations are from OSHP District 9.

"The law now permits law enforcement officers to pull over motorists who are observed in distracted driving," Tierney said. "It is a primary offense in Ohio meaning that if that's the only thing being observed you can still be pulled over.

"Two of the red flags that will get you pulled over is texting and driving with multiple key strokes and watching multimedia on your phone. Those are the types of things that are taking your eyes off the road for more than a second or so."

The law states no person shall operate a motor vehicle on any street open to the public for vehicular traffic while using, holding or physically supporting with any part of a person's body an electronic wireless communications device.

Penalties go as follows: first offense — fine up to $150 and two points on a driver's license; second offense — a fine up to $250 and three points on your license; third offense — a fine up to $500, four points on a driver's license, and a 90-day driver's license suspension. Authorities will issue doubled fines to those caught using cell phones while driving through work zones.

The law describes an electronic wireless communications device as a wireless device that is designed or used to communicate text, initiate or receive communication, or exchange information or any device capable of displaying a video, movie, broadcast television or visual image.

According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, drivers over 18 years of age can make or receive calls with hands-free devices and drivers under 18 are restricted in using their devices, including hands-free features.

"If you are just observed swiping to pick up a call or dismiss a call or holding your phone to your ear, those are permissible activities under the law," Tierney said. "You would not get pulled over for that, but if you are observed texting while driving or watching multimedia on your phone, that's the type of activity that will get you pulled over.

"If you are doing a single-swipe activity such as changing a route that is not an activity that you can be pulled over for, now if you are typing in that you want to visit a McDonald's restaurant and you're typing in an address, that would be an activity that could get you pulled over."

According to the law, while using a feature of an electronic wireless communications device for navigation: a person shall not manually type letters, numbers or symbols into the device, or hold the device with any part of a person's body.

"The bottom line is, if you have a smartphone, the idea here is that if you are doing single swipes to take action, that's fine," Tierney said. "If you have a newer car that has speakerphone capabilities or Apple CarPlay, that will be fine."

People driving through Ohio are off limits to dialing a phone number, sending text messages, browsing social media, video calls/Facetime, browsing the internet, watching videos, playing games and recording/streaming.

Criminal Defense Attorney Brandon E. Shroy, out of Columbus, had a different perspective of the distracted driving law. He said the language used in the document could be problematic.

"The problem is that it uses a lot of ambiguous language; it says you are allowed to have a phone close to your ear — a police officer having to decide what is close enough to your ear means that they can pull you over any time they want to," Shroy said.

"In my mind, as an attorney, I see selective enforcement enough that I don't like laws that are going to put police in an impossible position of what near means to them. ... It's problematic because it's not very clear what it means, I don't know what 'near your ear' is. I suppose every police officer will have their own definition."

Shroy said this law is just another way the state can overstep boundaries and begin pulling over people who an officer wants to target.

"It's just one more way that the state can really overreach if they decide to and it will be officer by officer," Shroy said. "Ohio drivers are going to have to understand that the police aren't going to exactly know how to enforce this, either.

"You are eventually going to see police targeting people they want to pull over. You are going to have increased police interactions with people who are now legally allowed to have guns so it can create some pretty dangerous situations."

Due to the "ambiguous language," he said a police officer will have the complete freedom to pull over a subject at their free will when deemed necessary.

"In practice, normally laws like this are used to pull people over who they want to pull over and that's really what the Fourth Amendment does not want," he said. "If they are looking for an excuse, they probably got one now."

Shroy said it is going to be interesting to see how the law plays out. He said it was made with good intentions, but may do more harm than good.

"If they were to see anything in your car that gave them reason to expand the scope of the traffic stop, they now can look through your car for other things," Shroy said. "It's very well-intentioned, but what it's going to unintentionally result in is police using this to pull people over. Even if the courts said the police officer was wrong, things that they may find after that can still be prosecuted.

He added, "To my mind, it's a very difficult position for law enforcement to try to figure out how to use this."

The driving-while-texting legislation went into effect Oct. 5. and was drafted by the Ohio legislature at the governor's request.

(606) 326-2657 — ajohnson@dailyindependent.com