Virginia One Step Closer to Passing New Texting while Driving Law

Soon Virginia could join Maryland and D.C. as a state where drivers could be cited solely for texting without being pulled over for another offense.

Having passed a Senate transportation committee, the bill sponsored by Fairfax Sen. George Barker, the bill will now appear before the full Senate.

According to Senate Bill 219:

It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a moving motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth while using any handheld personal communications device to:

1. Manually enter multiple letters or text in the device as a means of communicating with another person; or
2. Read any email or text message transmitted to the device or stored within the device, provided that this prohibition shall not apply to any name or number stored in the device nor to any caller identification information.

The provisions of the  law would not apply to emergency and law enforcement vehicles or any person reporting an emergency with a "handheld personal communications device."