Photo by Abby Bellow
Although 44 states have constituted texting while driving as illegal, Oklahoma remains one of the few states yet to prohibit it.
“When I spoke to an Oklahoma state senator about this question, he said it’s one of those things you cannot stop so why take away their right to even do that,” Danny Proctor, an officer with the Oklahoma Christian University Campus Police, said. “With that being said, that’s one of the reasons why they haven’t passed anything on it as of now.”
In addition to Oklahoma state legislatures not yet passing a ban on texting while driving, Jennifer Lepard with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department said in the Edmond Sun article “Oklahoma lax on texting while driving,” state law prohibits cities and counties from passing their own bans and tackling an issue of statewide concern.
“I think it’s weird that Oklahoma hasn’t made texting and driving illegal,” junior Karly Monday said. “Where I’m from in Montana, texting and driving is illegal, though not for the entire state yet.”
Proctor says the best way to try to achieve change is to contact state officials.
“If you want to try to get something done you need to go to your state legislature or state representative and tell them, ‘hey, this is something that even I see going down the road and that we have to do something about,’” Proctor said.
Proctor said a cell phone citation could only be issued if a cell phone is involved in a motor vehicle accident.
“The only thing [officers] can write on now is if a person is extremely negligent with their driving behavior and that would be a reckless driving citation,” Proctor said. “[Police officers] can pull them over and issue a reckless driving citation but cannot write them a cell phone citation unless they have been involved in a motor vehicle accident.”
Campus Police Chief John Matlock said oftentimes after a car accident, law enforcement and the fire department check to see where the cell phone is located.
“One of the Oklahoma City firemen that I know told me that on major wrecks that they are called in to, one of the first things they look for is where the cell phone is,” Matlock said. “More and more they’re finding them on the floorboards of the car.”
Matlock said this isn’t the first issue that Oklahoma is behind the national curve.
“In Oklahoma, there are other safety issues that we are behind on,” Matlock said. “We’re also one of the few states now that don’t have a mandatory helmet law for motorcycles.”
According to the Edmond Sun, in 2013 there were 14 fatal crashes and more than 600 injury crashes that were linked to distracted drivers on electronic devices in Oklahoma.
Paul Atchley, a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, who has been studying the phenomenon for 12 years, commented on the prevalence of texting and driving to the Edmond Sun.
“By the time youth get behind the wheel, most will have learned that it is OK to use a phone while driving—unless state restricts use,” Atchley said. “What we see is once the device is in the car and there’s not a strong prohibition against the behavior, people use it.”
Texting while driving hasn’t been blamed for causing any major traffic incidents at Oklahoma Christian, but campus police suggest it may be due to the small size of the campus.
“After speaking with Chief Matlock, he said we don’t really have a problem on campus and the officers, me included, haven’t really noticed people texting and driving and we haven’t really had any major accidents because of it,” Proctor said. “Usually when [students] are just pulling out of a parking lot or going a short distance, [they’re] generally not going to be in the car long enough to start texting and driving on campus.”
Some students feel as though it is a personal responsibility to limit distractions while driving.
“I had a cell phone and was texting before texting and driving became illegal so sometimes I have to make the conscious decision to not pick up my phone while driving,” Monday said.
While Oklahoma still does not have laws against texting while driving, State Representative Terry O’Donnell said in the Tulsa World article “House panel takes up texting while driving” that he plans to file the 2015 plan to ban texting while driving. However, O’Donnell’s plan will only allow for police officers to add a texting and driving citation to a driver pulled over without first being involved in a motor vehicle accident.
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