Handheld Device Ban: Minnesota House Committee Approves Bill

Minnesota is one step closer to making it illegal to hold a cellphone or other electronic device while driving. On Thursday, the hands-free bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Mark Uglem of Champlin passed the House Ways and Means Committee.

HF1180 would require hands-free cellphone use unless "the vehicle is legally pulled over to the side of the road, has come to a complete stop, and is not obstructing traffic."

Minnesota would become the 17th state with a hands-free law. Georgia will begin enforcing recently passed hands-free legislation this summer.

In Minnesota, distracted or inattentive driving is a factor in one in four crashes, resulting in at least 70 deaths and 350 serious injuries every year, according to state figures. Authorities estimate these numbers are vastly underreported due to law enforcement’s challenge in determining distraction as a crash factor.

Earlier this year, police said a 28-year-old semi driver made no effort to brake before a deadly crash in Lake Elmo.

The crash killed Robert Bursik, 54, of Amery, Wisconsin. Samuel Hicks was charged with one count of criminal vehicular homicide.

Hicks admitted to investigators he was texting his girlfriend and had looked up a house on his Zillow app while driving, according to the criminal complaint.

The hands-free proposal has strong bipartisan support, including vocal backing from Gov. Mark Dayton.

"This addresses the biggest single public safety issue that’s facing us on the roads today," Uglem told the committee Thursday."There are over 110 million people in the United States that are driving under hands-free legislation now."

"People aren’t just texting anymore," Uglem added. "The state patrol stopped a guy the other day that was trading stocks. People are paying bills while they’re driving down the road. They’re snapchatting, they’re Facebooking. This is epidemic because we are addicted to phones."

Read the full text of the current bill below:

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