This week we saw lots of interesting legislation trending, one of the most interesting was GA HB673, the Hands-Free Georgia Act. Though the bill was signed at the beginning of May, it has been incredibly popular on our site throughout the first week in June; it goes into effect on July 1st. The main focus of this legislation is to prohibit distracted driving and encourage technology-free traveling throughout the state.
“Distracted driving” is any activity that diverts attention from driving. This includes activities like talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with electronics within your vehicle, and so on.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety, distracted driving claimed 3,450 lives in 2016 and injured 391,000 people in motor vehicle crashes in 2015. Sending or reading a text message takes your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds, which is long enough to cover a football field while driving at 55 mph. Last year, 1,550 people died in automobile crashes on Georgia roads – more than four deaths per day.
The following actions are prohibited while driving under the law:
Holding or supporting any device with any part of the body.
Writing, sending or reading texts of any kind in the form of text message, instant message, email or internet data.
Watching a video or movie on a device and recording or broadcasting video footage.
Getting out of the seat or removing the seat belt to reach for a device.
The bill does allow you to use many different “hands free” methods of messaging and communicating like earpieces, headphones, other wearable technology, using voice recognition (“Hey Siri” for example) or hitting one button to activate voice recognition to perform tasks on your device. You are also allowed to enter location information while driving on map applications and GPS.
The law does not apply to some specific situations:
Reporting a medical emergency, fire, crime, traffic incident or road condition posing a hazard.
When utility service provider employees or contractors are responding to utility emergencies.
When emergency medical personnel, police, firefighters, etc. are doing their jobs.
When the vehicle is lawfully parked, not just stopped.
Penalties consist of three tiers of offenses within two year periods. First offense is a fine up to $50 and a one-point penalty on your license. Second offense is a fine up to $100 and a two-point penalty on your license. Third offense is a fine up to $150 and a three-point penalty on your license. After you reach the third offense, your license could possibly be suspended.
The House Study Committee on Distracted Driving found that of the 15 states that have similar hands-free legislation, 13 have seen a 16 percent average decrease in traffic fatalities within two years of passing legislation. When looking at legislation relating to “distracted driving” you can see an increase in the importance of the issue throughout the country. Below you can see how the number of bills and states proposing them have steadily increased over the years.
Here is a map of all of the current bills across the nation having to do with “distracted driving”.