Photo illustration. (DM Photo | Logan Kirkland)
Ever since the state passed a new law against texting and driving last week, the Oxford Police Department will continue to enforce their practice of giving citations to distracted drivers.
Deputy Chief of Police James Owens of OPD said officers have always taken a proactive stance, long before the texting and driving law was in place.
“We were always looking for distracted drivers, and we will continue to look for distracted driving,” Owens said.
The new texting and driving law is a civil penalty, which means the Oxford police department can still write a citation but must go to the justice court to get a citation from the county to make that charge, according to Owens.
Owens said the department will be using what the department calls distracted driving, which falls right underneath Oxford’s careless driving law. Officers can articulate the fact that an individual was texting and driving, and that the driver’s erratic driving behavior was due to their texting, which contributed to their careless driving, according to Owens.
“An officer can prove it by visually observing an individual with a handheld device,” Owens said. “and you are using it in someway and the officer can articulate that in his report, it is probable cause for that officer to make a stop.”
Owens said when an officer gets behind a vehicle and the driver is texting it resembles someone who is under the influence of an intoxicating beverage or under the influence of some type of substance.
Owens said officers notice this when a driver is going under the speed limit, stopping irregularly or suddenly and veering from one side of the lane to another.
“The driving behavior is almost the same,” Owens said. “Texting and driving and driving under the influence mimic each other.”
Owens said that the texting and driving citation costs $25 and after a year the citation will move to $100.
The department is going to use careless driving as a premise for a stop, which is a significantly larger fine, but are going to include in that careless driving that this individual was texting and driving and incorporate those two laws, according to Owens.
Owens said the law specifies that a driver is not allowed to text at a stoplight, stop sign and even in traffic. He said this law does not prohibit talking on the phone while driving.
“My advice is to go hands free,” Owens said.
Even though many students use electronic devices while driving, many feel that having this in place will help reduce the carless and reckless driving.
“Texting and driving is a completely unnecessary risk. It causes so many accidents,” senior English major, Sinclair Rishel, said.
Owens said, in order to respect the rights of all the other motorists on the road, take it upon yourself to be responsible and not text and drive.
Texting and driving in the past has attributed to a lot of unnecessary loss of life and by taking it upon yourself you can not only reduce the risk of you being injured in an accident, but others as well, according to Owens.
“Nothing is that important that you have to respond that quick. It can wait,” Owens said.
