Effective January 1, 2009, it will be illegal to use a wireless phone device to write, send or read text messages while operating a motor vehicle.  Violators caught text messaging while driving will be fined $20 for a first offense and $50 for any violations after that, although court imposed fees would increase the cost of a first offense to nearly $100.

This is an important back-fill law to the previously imposed ban effective July 1, 2008 to prohibit the hand-held use of cell phones while driving.  In discussing the pending law, its author, Sen. Joe Simitian, indicated that while it would have been logical to include the ban on texting in the earlier ban on the use of hand-held phone devices while driving, the concern was that this would have provided another excuse to put off passage of the original cell phone ban.

My view?  While my heart would like to agree with Republicans that existing laws against negligent driving should cover this obviously dangerous activity, you could apply the same logic to not running stop signs, and I see drivers every day (still!) yammering on the phone with both hands or sending text messages while driving.  Perhaps the publicity around the new law will remind people that it’s far too easy to get lost in a text conversation, or catching up on my blog posts, as the car in front of you suddenly comes to a stop…!!