Penalty for first-time distracted-driving ticket to increase

Aug. 19--A new law will take effect next year that will up the penalty for first-time offenders who are caught texting while driving.

The law will reclassify the first offense as a moving violation. Currently, first-time offenders caught texting and driving are given a ticket that is classified as a nonmoving violation. That's the same kind of ticket a person would receive if they were pulled over for a taillight that wasn't functioning.

Bill Caldwell, executive vice president of property and casualty for Horace Mann Educators Corp., said moving violations are considered when determining a driver's insurance rates and whether to insure them.

"Typically, in the industry, a driver will see an increase of 10 to 20 percent in their rates if convicted of a moving violation," Caldwell said.

The change for first-time offenders goes into effect July 1, 2019. Under the current law, which took effect in 2014, second and subsequent texting while driving offenses are treated as moving violations, but the first offense is a nonmoving violation.

"With the increased use of technological devices, distracted driving has become a serious problem on the roads of our state and through the nation," said Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White in a press release. "This important legislation will make our roads safer. No driver should be texting while driving."

In addition to having a moving violation on their driving record, people convicted of texting and driving also will face fines and court costs that will be determined by a judge. A driver convicted of three moving violations in a 12-month period is subject to a driver's license suspension, White's press release added.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. The NHTSA estimates that at least 25 percent of police-reported crashes involve some type of distracted driving.

Texting while driving is considered among the most deadly forms of distracted driving, with information from Illinois State Police indicating that texting while driving makes a person 23 times more likely to crash.

Nancy Kyrouac, director of Think First, an injury prevention program at SIU School of Medicine, said the problem of texting and driving is not limited to teens. Adults also are guilty.

"People of all ages text and drive. There is more of a concentration of younger people who text and drive," Kyrouac said.

Kyrouac added that even hands-free devices can be distracting.

"When you pick up the cellphone, even if it's hands free, it's still a distraction," Kyrouac said. "You lose your ability to focus on the primary task at the time, which is driving. We think we can multi-task, but we switch back and forth really quickly from one task to another. Driving, at some point, becomes secondary."

When driving is the secondary task, people can have problems reacting quickly to emergencies.

"If something sudden or unexpected happens where you need to make a quick reaction and judgment, and you are otherwise engaged, that's where a problem can occur," Kyrouac said.

Last year, Springfield police issued 823 citations for distracted driving. City officers have issued 342 such citations so far this year.

The number of accidents in Springfield attributed to distracted driving wasn't available.

Sgt. Kris Rhodes of the Springfield Police Department said that while the law currently classifies the first distracted-driving citation as a nonmoving violation, some insurance companies have warned their policy holders that their rates would still go up with that first ticket.

"We've had a lot of people pleading with us on traffic stops saying, "Do you have to write me this ticket. My insurance company treats it as a moving violation," Rhodes said.

Contact John Reynolds: [email protected], 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.

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