Washington's New Distracted Driving Law Summed Up In One Picture

KIRKLAND, WA - Don't like the state's tough new E-DUI distracted driving law? Next time you go to complain about it, think about this picture.

On Saturday, a driver crashed into a utility pole in Kirkland. Why? They were looking down at their phone, according to Kirkland police. The crash happened around 5 p.m. Saturday in a residential neighborhood south of the downtown area.

Luckily, no one was hurt. But the crash did knock out power to about 158 people in the Central Houghton neighborhood, according to Puget Sound Energy.

Washington's new distracted driving law went into effect just last Sunday. Most prominently, it outlaws holding or otherwise interacting with your phone while you're driving (or stopped at a red light). There are also new secondary offenses included in the law, which means you can be penalized by letting other activities - eating, grooming - interfere with your driving.

A symbolic online petition was started to re-write the new law earlier this week. The petition said, falsely, that the law banned sipping coffee or water while driving. More than 30,000 people, including some from out of state, signed it.

The point of the law is not to stop people from taking a sip of coffee but to prevent accidents, injuries and deaths. Some 3,000 died in distracted-driving crashes in 2014, according to federal highway statistics.

“We’re suffering a scourge of death of our loved ones on our roadways, due to two problems: distracted driving and impaired driving,” Gov. Jay Inslee said when he signed the law in May.

Image via Kirkland police