OHIO — Starting Thursday, if someone gets caught violating Ohio’s distracted driving law, there will be consequences.
Six months after the law went into effect, law enforcement will now be able to issue tickets.
“This is an area of concern. We’re addressing it, and it’s real — it’s a problem, so that’s why we basically made this a primary offense because it’s hopefully going to save lives and that’s our overall goal,” Sgt. Tyler Ross from the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
First-time offenders could face up to a $150 fine and two points on their license, but those can be waived if they take a course from the Department of Public Safety.
The second offense is a $250 fine and three points. A third offense could cost $500, four points and a 90-day license suspension.
Ross said the punishment is necessary to fix the bigger problem.
“So it’s not just a fine or fee or points on your license, or potentially property damage. It’s people are being killed and injured, so it’s very serious. You’re driving a weapon down the roadway. You have to pay attention to the roadway in front of you and eliminate those distractions,” Ross said.
Since 2018, there have been more than 60,000 crashes involving distracted drivers in the state with 2,000 of them causing serious injuries or deaths.
But Ross said even without issuing tickets over the last six months, data shows the state is headed in the right direction.
“If you look year to date from last year, 2022, to this year, we’ve seen about a 19% reduction in our serious injuries and fatal crashes. So that’s very encouraging,” Ross said.
Over the last six months, law enforcement has begun to learn the indicators of distracted driving.
Ross said they are very similar to pulling over an impaired driver, while they’re also keeping an eye on illuminating phone screens.
“You see that intermittent breaking and the reason for that is they’re looking at their phone, they’re looking up, and that gap between the vehicle has decreased because they’re not watching the roadway. So we see intermittent breaking, driving outside the lane of travel, marked lanes again because they’re not watching the roadway and in front of them and also not using the turn signal and the little things like that,” Ross said.
Drivers cannot hold their device in front of their face while driving. Dialing, texting, browsing and video calls are all off limits. Those things are all allowed though when the driver is sitting at a red light.
Drivers can make a single touch or swipe on their phone, and hold it up to their ear to talk.
Drivers can break the rules if they are calling law enforcement, hospital or fire department to report an emergency.
