By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
CHARLESTON — All may not be lost after all on the stalled cell phone texting proposal.
If and when Gov. Joe Manchin beckons lawmakers back to their desks for a special session this spring, Sen. John Unger wants him to include a bill that outlaws texting while driving.
His Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee worked the bill earlier, but eliminated a key provision from the one advanced during interims sessions — making the use of hand-held cell phones for conversation a secondary offense.
As the deadline came for each chamber to get its bills out, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee had failed to take up Unger’s proposal.
That didn’t sit well with Delegate Nancy Guthrie, D-Kanawha, who has been attempting to clamp down on cell phone usage in traffic for three years.
“I’m asking the governor to place this bill on the call, if and when a special session is called, to address the issue, at least the texting, if not the cell phone usage,” Unger, D-Berkeley, said Thursday.
“It is a major safety issue. I’m disappointed that it didn’t get passed by the Legislature.”
In an earlier interview, Manchin told The Register-Herald that he supports a ban on texting while driving and acknowledged at the time he is among the worst offenders of the practice.
Unger’s committee worked the original Guthrie-led bill early in the session and shipped it to the judiciary panel.
“I just assumed it was going to be acted on,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler said he didn’t realize the bill had been sitting in his committee, calling it an “oversight.”
“I just don’t remember anyone ever coming to me again and asking for it to be advanced,” Kessler, D-Marshall, said. “It’s something I certainly would have supported. I regret that.”
Unger produced a copy of a letter he sent Feb. 25, asking Kessler to put the texting bill on the agenda “as soon as possible.”
“But it fell through the cracks,” Unger said. “I don’t think anything malicious or anything like that occurred. It was just an oversight. But it was an oversight that we should have caught. We want to make sure we address it this year.”
Guthrie had voiced disappointment that Unger allowed the original bill to escape his panel with a major change.
But Unger said he was acting on the advice of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe Miller, who wanted to eliminate the hand-held wireless talking and focus exclusively on texting.
The Charleston Daily Mail contributed to this story.
