Hands Free Driving Presentation

1. Hands Free Presentation
Assistant Chief Brandy Norris
College Station Police Department
January 9, 2020

2. College Station Ordinance
Sec. 38-19
• August 11, 2016 - City Council adopted an ordinance
prohibiting the use of wireless communication devices
while operating a motor vehicle
• November 9, 2016-ordinance went into effect
• January 1, 2017-full enforcement began

3. CITATION WARNING Grand Total
November 2016 0 79 80
December 2016 0 64 64
January 2017 44 61 105
February 2017 20 32 52
March 2017 35 36 71
April 2017 154 69 223
May 2017 171 73 244
June 2017 85 49 134
July 2017 67 62 129
August 2017 61 48 109
September 2017 3 5 8
Grand Total 640 578 1219

4. Transportation Code Section 545.4251
• Effective September 1, 2017, portions of the City’s
ordinance prohibiting use of a Wireless Communication
Device (WCD) to read, write or send electronic messages
was preempted by Transportation Code §545.425 (j) enacted
by H.B. 62
• Efforts to completely preempt City ordinances as it relates
to use of WCD’s failed in the Special Session – cities can
still enact hands free ordinances, but the defenses allowed
related to texting and driving in the state law still apply

5. Transportation Code Section 545.4251
• Does not allow an officers to inspect any device.
• Requires signage to be posted at each point at which a
State highway, U.S. highway or interstate highway enters
the jurisdiction of the local authority
• Parts of the new City Ordinance conflicted with the new
state law, so Council chose to repeal the ordinance rather
than amend to hands free.
• Since repeal, we have cited for the offense under state law
seven times.

6. Comparison
City Ordinance-Sec 38-19
(repealed version)
State Law-Trans. Code
§545.4251 (Texting Only)
1. Prohibited
Conduct
Generally prohibits any use
(a new ordinance would not
enforce texting)
Only prohibits reading, writing or
sending of electronic messages
unless at a complete stop
2. Fine Amount $25-$200 $25-$99 for 1st offense & $100-
$200 for 2nd offense
3.Affirmative
Defenses
Complete Stop, Hands Free,
Mounted GPS use,
Emergency use
(new ordinance would not
conflict with state law)
Hands Free, GPS use, Emergency
or traffic or road condition use,
Music use

7. Texas Transportation
Institute Study
Survey of Wireless Communication Device Use in
College Station, Texas
Katie N. Womack
Senior Research Scientist
Center for Transportation Safety
Texas Transportation Institute

8. College Station Driver Cell Phone
Use Survey 2019 Follow Up

9. College Station/Bryan Driver Cell
Phone Use Survey 2019 Follow Up –
Comparison of Cities

12. Cell Phone Use Over Time
MCD % USE 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Cell Phone 6.7 5.9 5.0 4.7 4.8 4.0
Texting 3.6 3.7 3.5 3.6 4.6 5.1
Texas 10.2 9.0 8.0 8.2 8.7 8.6
National 8.4 7.8 6.9 6.0 5.3 n/a

13. College Station Crash Data
Time Period FATAL
SUSPECTED
SERIOUS
INJURY
NON
INCAPACITATING
POSSIBLE
INJURY
NOT
INJURED UNKNOWN
Grand
Total
November 2015-
October 2016 7 52 364 336 901 30 1690
November 2016-
October 2017 4 38 408 276 787 21 1534
November 2017-
October 2018 3 37 402 205 748 16 1411
November 2018-
October 2019 7 25 383 217 772 14 1418

14. College Station Crash Data –
Cell Phone Contributing Factor
Time Period FATAL
SUSPECTED
SERIOUS INJURY
NON-
INCAPACITATING
POSSIBLE
INJURY
NOT
INJURED UNKNOWN Grand Total
November 2015-
October 2016 1 0 5 2 15 0 23
November 2016-
October 2017 0 1 3 0 5 0 9
November 2017-
October 2018 0 1 7 1 6 0 15
November 2018-
October 2019 0 0 1 0 9 0 10

15. State Wide Crash Data
Source: TxDOT
In 2018, there were 543,537 crashes in Texas.
96,151 or 17.6% were a result of distracted driving.

16. States with Hand Held Bans
Source: Governors Highway Safety Association
Arizona
California
Connecticut
Delaware
D.C.
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia

17. States With Texting Bands
Source: Governors Highway Safety Association
All Except:
Arizona (But do have a hand held ban)
Missouri
Montana

18. Texas Cities with Hands
Free Ordinances
• Amarillo
• Austin
• Bastrop
• Corpus Christi
• El Paso
• Laredo
• Rosenburg
• San Antonio
• Wichita Falls

19. Cities with Hands Free
Ordinances
• Except Bastrop, all of these cities’ ordinances were
already adopted prior to the state law going into effect and
the cities chose not to repeal the ordinances Bastrop’s
ordinance mimics state law.
• The Police Departments are not citing for texting while
driving under their city ordinance. They are only using their
city ordinances for enforcement of hands free
requirements.
• Number of citations issued since 9/1/2017 ranged from 2 –
22,468.

20. Total Budgetary Impact
• Previous ordinance costs - $51,707
• 42 signs were placed at entrances to the city at a cost of
$46,007
• Cost to remove all of the signs was $5,700
• Cost to purchase and install new signs to meet state law
requirement - $29,400
• Cost to purchase and install signs at every entrance to the
city - $84,000