New Distracted Driving Law In Effect In Ohio, Fines Increased

House Bill 95 went into effect on Monday. The new law makes it easier for law enforcement to ticket motorists for distracted driving, and also increases penalties for those found in violation of the law.

“Our legislative goal is to encourage Ohio drivers to be cautious when driving and to think of their safety before anything else,” Representative Jim Hughes, a Republican from Upper Arlington, said when the bill first passed the Ohio House in 2017. “No text message or phone call is worth losing your life or harming someone else.”

A year later and the legislation, with bipartisan support, has made its way through the Ohio House and Ohio Senate and is now in effect. The text of the law can be found by clicking here.

The law effectively enhances the state's existing moving violations for drivers. That means law enforcement will no longer need to prove a driver was texting at the time of an accident or violation. Instead, they merely need to prove the driver was "distracted" at the time of the violation.

Penalties for violating the new law are also steep. Drivers may need to pay a fine or complete a distracted driver course, designed for motorists that commit specific violations while distracted, the Ohio BMV said.

"For example, a driver operating a vehicle outside marked lanes who is also engaging in a distracted behavior, will face an enhanced fine of up to $100 in addition to a fine for the lane violation. Other violations such as red light, stop sign, speeding, and other moving violations similarly would result in potentially higher fines," the BMV said in a press release.

Information on the new distracted driver course can be found by clicking here.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. And like Patch on Facebook!)

Photo from Shutterstock