The City of Huron will become the second city in South Dakota to enact a ban on texting and distracted driving. The second reading of a four-part ordinance was approved by the Huron City Commission Monday night. Mayor Dave McGirr says only minor changes to some wording was added for the second reading of the ordinance….
None of the four Commissioners received any feedback from the public in the week since the first reading of the ordinance. Commissioner Kerwin Haeder researched distracted driving accidents and says in 2010 3092 people were killed in crashes involving distracted driving and amount of texing has increased 50-percent from 2009 to June of 2011. Haeder thinks Huron’s ordinance will be a good deterrent…
McGirr is hopeful Huron’s unique take on curbing distracted driving and texting while driving could give other city’s a baseline for establishing their own rules…
A resolution was also approved that sets the fine for texting while driving, device use by inexperienced or youth motorists and bus drivers with passengers on board at 100 dollars plus court costs. All three are primary offenses. Distracted Driving is a secondary offense with a fine of 15-dollars plus court costs. The ordinance needs to be published followed by a 20 day waiting period before becoming law. That should be sometime near the beginning of the new year. The Huron Police Department will recognize a grace period, while motorists in Huron become familiar with the new ordinance. Sioux Falls was the first city to enact a texting ban. Brookings is taking up the issue at it’s December 4th meeting. Mitchell has abandoned the issue and Watertown is also considering a texting ban.