House grinds to a halt: State lawmakers debate bill to ban holding a phone while driving
By Craig Monger, www.1819news.com
If the new rules package, passed earlier this year during the House organizational session, was supposed to streamline the state legislative process, it did not work on Tuesday.
A group of lawmakers successfully slowed debate in the House on Tuesday, halting a bill that would criminalize holding a mobile phone while driving.
House Bill 8 (HB8), sponsored by State Rep. Randy Wood (R-Anniston), would prohibit a person from watching or recording a photograph or video while operating a vehicle. It would also prohibit a person from physically holding a wireless telecommunications device while driving.
Former State Rep. K.L. Brown unsuccessfully attempted to pass a nearly identical bill in 2022.
Wood repeatedly expressed that the intention behind the bill was simply to “save lives” by cutting down on distracted driving.
Despite the revised rules, HB8 received lengthy debate, ultimately leading to the bill not receiving a vote at all on Tuesday.
Through a maelstrom of suggested amendments, several — primarily Democratic — lawmakers expressed concerns with the bills, using each debate section on each section of the legislative process to burn time.
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) pointed out that several things, like eating and applying makeup, are also distracting for drivers, questioning the selectiveness of the bill.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) believed the legislation could lead to profiling. He also expressed concern over Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) not collecting data on those charged under HB8’s statutes since data collecting would make it clear if racial groups were disproportionately pulled over. Data collecting was part of the original bill, but Wood said he removed it since ALEA already collected that data on traffic stops and would be redundant.
Even so, State Rep. Laura Hall (D-Huntsville) introduced an amendment reinserting the data collection stipulation, which had additional debate time before eventually passing.
