A habit many people have could soon become just as dangerous as drunk driving in the eyes of the law, and this could mean a serious impact on those who are pulled over.
The proposed bill is called Driving Under the Influence of an Electronic Device (DUI-E) and is currently under committee review in the South Carolina Statehouse. The bill would make driving while being distracted in any way by an electronic device illegal. This includes texting, talking on the phone, adjusting music and scrolling through social media.
Under the bill, drivers would only be allowed to touch their phone once, to make a call or to change music, and they would have to make phone calls through Bluetooth devices in the car or headsets.
The current texting while driving law in South Carolina calls for a $25 fine, the DUI-E bill also would fine offenders between $25 and $300. Under the current law, a person cannot be pulled over for texting and must first do another offense. Even then, the driver only has to say that they weren’t texting, they were switching music, and the fine will be dropped.
The new bill would treat using a cell phone while driving as a much more serious offense that drivers can be pulled over for. The aim of the DUI-E title of the bill is to bring more awareness to the problem, but how much would this actually help?
According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, 990 people died on SC roads in 2018. This number is an increase from that of 2017. South Carolina also has almost double the national average of DUI related deaths as of 2017, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported.
With these facts in mind, it makes sense why SC lawmakers would want to create laws that could possibly change these numbers, but this bill could affect some more than others.
Older cars, which are often owned by lower class people or students, do not come equipped with built-in Bluetooth technology. In order to use the phone while driving, these people would have to buy a headset, which they might not be able to afford.
The bill should allow people to talk on the phone while using the speaker setting. It should allow room for people who simply have no other option. Bills like this unintentionally put lower class people in an unfair position, especially since they are less likely to be able to pay the fine.
It is dangerous that cops could be allowed to pull a person over for even having something that looks like an electronic device in their hands. Already, people of color are more likely to be pulled over, a study out of Stanford reported. Should we be giving police more of an excuse to pull people of color over? Would police be more likely to be suspicious and pull over a black man than a white woman?
The DUI-E bill could help the number of deaths on SC roads to decrease, but when discussing legislation like this, it is important that we keep in mind other issues, which have caused damage to minority communities in the past.
