Did that know that every time you text while driving your attention is taken off the road for a minimum of five seconds? Or that texting while driving increases your chances of accident by over two thousand percent? A recent law in Maryland cracking down on cell phone use while driving - known as Jake's law - ups the penalty for distracted driving involving cell phones. Jake's law penalizes distracted drivers with a maximum of one year of jail time and a $5,000 fine, provided the accident was attributable to cell phone use and distracted driving.
Maryland's Texting While Driving Laws
To address the dangers of texting while driving, the Maryland legislature set down stricter penalties for accidents connected to texting while driving. The bill set harsher sentences for lethal or serious accidents associated with texting.
Although in Maryland there is already a standing ban on handhelds as a primary law, and ban on hands-free cellphone use as a secondary law for novice drivers, newer laws in Maryland are seeking to give stiffer penalties to drivers who cause serious or lethal accidents because of texting while driving.
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New Law Tough on Texting
Maryland also has a ban on texting while behind the wheel for drivers of all age groups. Nonetheless, a bill sponsored by Senator Manno in the Maryland legislature would give a maximum of three years in prison and/or a five thousand dollar fine to drivers found guilty of causing a fatal or serious accident while texting.
In March of 2014, this proposed bill passed Maryland's House overwhelmingly (111-25). On a technical note the proposed bill, which has already passed through Maryland's House, would put stricter curbs on manual texts, or texts physically entered in by the driver.
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Automatic texts or speech to text services, which convert your speech from a hands-free phone into a readable text message, are exempted from prosecution under the new proposed piece of legislation.
In previous installments of the proposed bill, police were permitted to confiscate the phone while the driver was required to dole out information about the phone's make, model and other germane information. These clauses in the bill were later stricken from the proposed piece of legislation.
General Cell Phone Rules in Maryland
Maryland's DMV says that the state of Maryland prohibits using a hand-held phone while operating a motor vehicle. Moreover, drivers with a learner's permit or provisional license are prohibited from using a cell phone entirely while driving, provided those driving with a learner's permit or provisional license are under age twenty one.
In Maryland texting is banned for drivers of all age groups. This applies to all types of drivers; that is, texting while driving is a crime in Maryland irrespective of license type or status. This means that just checking texts while stopped at a red light is prohibited in the state of Maryland.
Since October 1, 2013, law enforcement has been permitted to stop any driver suspected of operating a handheld cellphone while behind the wheel. Moreover, using a handheld cellphone while driving has been a primary offense in Maryland since late 2013 and remains unlawful in Maryland.
The state of Maryland has recently criminalized talking on a handheld phone or texting while driving. As a show of force and an indication of the seriousness by which Maryland treats distracted driving, Jake's law punishes cell phone use that leads to serious injury or death with substantial jail time, a hefty fine and 12 points added to your permanent driving record.
The penalties for operating a handheld phone while driving also get stiffer the more times one is caught doing so. The first, second and any subsequent fines amount to $83, $140 and $160 respectively. This means that if you are caught using a handheld three or more times, you must pay a $160 fine each subsequent time you are caught using a handheld cellphone while driving.
Maryland was forced to step up its punishments for texting while driving subsequent to finding out that half of vehicle crashes, as well as fatal accidents, were the result of distracted driving. This is why Maryland followed Washington D.C. and Virginia in banning texting while driving.
