Texting While Driving Law Enforcement Questioned
As the date when Massachusetts’ Texting While Driving Law begins (Oct 1) draws near, police are wondering how enforcement of this new driving restriction will actually work, and how enforceable it will be in practice. Since the new law bans texting or emailing while behind the wheel, but does not ban using a hand held mobile phone for calls, actually catching someone and determining that they were texting, and not just dialing a phone number will not be easy.
According to the Massachusetts Police Chiefs, there has been no training or enforcement instructions have been issued or suggested to police officers. If a person claims they were only making a phone call, there isn’t much that an officer can do in that situtation.
Of course, if the stop was initiated because the person was clearing driving dangerously or negligently, the police officer can always cite the person for negligent operation of a motor vehicle, or reckless driving. But if they are merely being stopped just for the act of allegedly texting while driving, the police are stuck without much evidence.
In more serious cases where there is an accident or serious injury, the police or criminal prosecutors can subpoena the mobile phone records of the person and find out exactly whether or not they were dialing or texting at the moment of the accident, but that is only likely to happen in a small minority of cases.
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