The Washington State Patrol will not offer a grace period when texting while driving and failure to use a hands-free device become primary traffic offenses on June 10.
It is common for the state patrol to offer an educational grace period when a new law requires drivers to change long-standing behavior.
“Drivers have already had nearly two years to adjust their driving habits,” said WSP Chief John R. Batiste. “We will fully enforce this law from day one.”
Laws prohibiting texting and requiring hands-free devices took effect in 2008, but have been considered secondary violations. Officers had to witness some other infraction in order to make a traffic stop.
The new designation as primary offenses mean police can stop drivers for a texting or cell phone violation alone.
Batiste is disappointed that the laws’ previous status didn’t win more voluntary compliance. In some cases there was outright defiance.
“They would look right at our troopers with phones held to their ears,” Batiste said. “They knew that without another violation we couldn’t do anything.”
The texting and cell phone requirements are intended to save lives and reduce injuries by eliminating these two major sources of driver distraction.
Since the laws went into effect in 2008, WSP has written approximately 3,000 tickets and given about 5,900 warnings.
The fine for a violation is $124.
Click It or Ticket
City, county and state police are gearing up for another statewide Click It or Ticket seat belt mobilization. In King County, law enforcement from the Auburn, Bellevue, Black Diamond, Burien, Issaquah, Kenmore, Kent, Maple Valley, Redmond, Renton, SeaTac and Shoreline police departments, and the Washington State Patrol, will be conducting extra seat belt patrols during the nighttime hours from May 24 – June 6.
Washington has one of the highest seat belt use rates in the United States and has had since the Click it or Ticket Project began in 2002. The program and the primary enforcement seat belt law resulted in a 21 percent drop in vehicle occupant deaths, from an average of 518 from 1995 to 2002, to an average of 410 from 2003 to 2009.
