Tom Warne Report, 2 March 2013
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to plans to ban texting while driving are not hindering advocate’s push for a renewal of the measure. They say their purpose is to combat one of the biggest threats on the nation’s highways – distracted driving.
“It’s an epidemic,” said a tearful Jennifer Zamora Jamison of Roanoke, whose husband, an Iraq war veteran, was killed in a head-on collision with a distracted driver in 2007. Jameson spoke at an emotional committee hearing this week in favor of legislation that would join Texas with nearly 40 other states that have banned texting while driving.
Gov. Perry vetoed a bill in 2011 that was similar to the new effort sponsored by Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland. In a statement like Perry’s veto message in 2011, spokesperson Lucy Nashed said Perry “continues to believe texting while driving is reckless and irresponsible” but believes the solution rests with “information and education, not government micromanagement.”
