Story by David Beard, The Dominion Post
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Preston County woman told legislators her story of the deadly consequences f distracted driving at they considered a bill to update and enhance the penalties for that crime on Monday.
The bill was HB 2218, before House Judiciary. Several delegates called it one of the most important bills of the year.
Karrah Ames testified on this issue last year and told the members again on Monday that her husband, Robin, was an avid bicyclist. Feb. 17, 2020, was an unseasonably warm day and he was cycling on a road he knew well (Old Route 73 near Bruceton Mills, according to news reports).
She was able to track him via GPS, she said, he wore bright clothing and his bike was equipped with read radar to let him know what was behind him.
But the woman who killed him, Ames said the driver came from behind him and she was looking at the weather app on her cell phone. News reports say she didn’t know she hit him until she felt the “thud.”
“I guess I should feel grateful the she didn’t leave him at the scene,” Ames said.
Robin was behind his expected arrival time, she said, so she called his cell phone. But someone else answered. “I just said, ‘Has he been hit?’ Somebody said, ‘Yes he has.’ I just screamed and I drove.”
She said, “I can’t tell you what the weight of his absence means in my life, in our daughters’ lives.” Their youngest had just turned 4 two days before Robin’s death. “It is a hole that will never be filled.”
Relevant to the bill, she said that the crimes the driver person was convicted of merited nothing more than community service hours levied in traffic court.
HB 2218 is called the Distracted Driving Act. It applies to cell phones, audio and video devices, tablets, laptops, notebooks, data retrieval devices and GPS receivers.
Voice-activated and hands-free devices are exempted. Current law exempts ride-share drivers and the bill adds taxi and limo drivers, as they all use dispatch software.
Along with monetary penalties for distracted driving, the bill adds penalties for causing harm or death.
Harm to property is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100 to $500. Serious physical harm to a person is also a misdemeanor, with a fine of $500 to $1,000 and/or jail up to 120 days, plus a one-year licenses revocation.
Causing death is considered negligent homicide, with up to a year in jail a fine of $100 to $1,000, or both.
The bill also adds, at the request of automakers, committee counsel said, an exception for using devices in vehicles equipped for automated driving systems – better known as autonomous vehicles, which are going to become more prevalent, the automakers told counsel.
Matt Overturf, with the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, provided some statistics. He said 26 states, including neighbors Ohio and Virginia, have similar laws; neighbors Kentucky and Pennsylvania have similar bills moving in their legislatures. While Ohio’s law doesn’t take effect until April, states with laws in place report reduced distracted-driving crashes.
In 2020, he said, federal statistics for distracted-driving crashes involving wireless show 3,142 deaths and 424,000 injured. One in five of those involved were not inside vehicles.
Ames said that thorough her work, she took a driver training class that involved running an obstacle course of cones while answering a cell phone. She and everyone else in the class hit the cones. “There was no awareness of being solely focused on the job at hand.”
Asked if the bill does enough, she said no. Penalties can accomplish some, but more education is needed. “I do think this just sort of scratches the surface a little bit.” But it’s a starting point.
Delegate Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, is a former state trooper and told his colleagues he’s a court-certified crash investigator. “They’re not accidents, they’re crashes.”
One of his young colleagues, Andrew Fox, was killed at age 27 by a distracted driver, he said, just one day before he and his wife were going to close on a home.
It’s rarely the issue covered in car inspections – worn tires or brakes for instance – that lead to crashes, he said. It’s drinking, driving too fast, and being distracted by a cell phone. “And it costs people their lives.”
In the case of Fox, he said, the driver was fined $500 and did no time in jail. “We need to create a culture of compliance,” where people understand what’s expected.
The bill cleared the Technology and Infrastructure Committee before coming to Judiciary, and now goes to the full House after a unanimous vote on Monday.