July 1 brings with it some new laws, and two of them will have effects on the majority of Hoosiers.
It is now illegal in the state of Indiana to hold a cell phone while driving. It is also now illegal for people under the age of 21 years old to purchase tobacco products.
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the distracted driving bill into law on March 18. It takes effect today.
Indiana has had a texting ban since July 1, 2011, which prohibits motorists from using a phone to type, transmit or read a text message or email while operating a vehicle, unless they are using hands-free or voice-operated technology or contacting 911 for an emergency. But police had found that hard to enforce, so the new law was passed.
The new law means motorists will have to put down their phone completely while driving, but conversations can still be had as long as the phone is in a cradle or the conversation is being had through Bluetooth.
Drivers will begin being ticketed for this offense, starting today, but those who do receive a ticket won’t receive points on their license. Violating the new law is punishable by a $500 fine, but the government is allowing a one-year “grace period” to allow motorists to get used to putting the phone down, thereby waiving points on licenses until after July 1, 2021.
Local police think the law is a good idea, along with Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton, who have dealt with distracted drivers and cases in court where people are injured.
According to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, every year since 2015 there were over 1,200 collisions on Indiana roads where a cell phone or other electronic device was a factor, which results in 40 fatalities.
Hampton said Indiana joins 21 other states that have similar laws and agrees that education to the public is key.
“When you look down to send or read a text while driving, you take your eyes off the road for an average of almost 5 seconds,” Hampton said. “A person driving at 55 miles per hour travels the length of a football field in 5 seconds.”
Indiana State Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Ted Bohner, who’s been in law enforcement for 13 years, said distracted driving affects us all and that nothing will completely get rid of distracted driving.
“Holding the phone is what is called manual distraction, because we’re actually holding it,” Bohner said, adding that paying attention to the conversation is a cognitive distraction. “But it’s at least taking one of those pieces out of the equation by taking away the manual distraction, so hopefully people manually are focusing more on driving the car.”
Bohner acknowledged it will be difficult for drivers to adjust to the new law.
“It’s not just changing what we do based on law, it’s going to be changing habits,” he said. “You know, our phones are a habit, and you can make an argument whether it’s a good or bad habit, but it’s going to be changing that. From our standpoint at ISP, a big part of this is going to be education.”
State police started putting out “public education” social media posts earlier this year to help drivers get used to the upcoming effect date.
What do people in Kosciusko County think about it? For 20-year-old Ira Brown, he’s not convinced the goal of making the roads safer will actually work.
While he says he already uses Bluetooth technology to have conversations while driving, he thinks other drivers might just try to hide their phones if they see police on the road.
“I think texting and driving is dangerous,” he said. “But I think people will just hide it, so it might be more dangerous in the long run.”
Adam Habegger, a 34-year-old man who uses Bluetooth in his vehicle to have conversations, also questions if people will really put their phones down.
“I already use hands-free, but sometimes I think it’s more distracting to mess with my screen to get my Bluetooth to work than actually having a phone up to my head.”
Habegger thinks some drivers will follow the law, and if not then he thinks it will at least make some drivers more conscious of having their phones in their hands.
“But I don’t think it’ll make a big difference,” he said.
John Ettinger, who said he travels around downtown Warsaw mostly on foot, thinks the distracted driving law is a good thing that he hopes works.
“I think it might be difficult,” he conceded. “I walk a lot and I see people all the time on their phones not paying attention at all, so it makes me nervous when I see that. I sure hope people will put them down.”
Twenty-one-year-old Aurelia Slusher said she holds her phone up to her ear when she talks while driving, especially when she’s talking to her mom who she says has a hard time hearing her if she’s using her Bluetooth.
“I’ll probably still take the call,” she said. Does she think the new law will work? “Not at all.”
In January, the smoking age in Indiana was raised from 18 years old to 21, in a quiet move that drew confusion among retailers and smokers alike.
The change came as part of a $1.4 trillion spending package signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20. The National Association of Tobacco Outlets put out a news bulletin in early January clarifying that the Food and Drug Administration had up to nine months to implement the change, but that the law took effect immediately.
In Kosciusko County, nearly all of the gas stations, grocery stores, private smoke shops and other places where tobacco products are sold had put up signs and changed the age restriction to 21 by mid-January. And nearly all of them at the time had said they were surprised by the move, but so were their customers.
Twenty-year-old Angel Roberts said Tuesday she was one of those smokers caught in the middle of the change.
“I’ve been smoking since I was 18 years old,” she said. “It’s like it happened overnight. One day I went to go buy a pack, and they said I had to be 21. I didn’t quit smoking, I’ll say that.”
Habegger, who said he isn’t a smoker, doesn’t think the age increase is necessarily right.
“If you can go fight for our country, you’re old enough to have a drink and a smoke,” he said.
Slusher said she doesn’t smoke but thinks the change in the smoking age would be “annoying” for those under 21 that do.
“For people who are already 18 and smoke and now they have to quit cold turkey?” she said. “Quitting cold turkey is hard enough. But you can be 18 and join the military.”
Heidi Blake, the Kosciusko County Tobacco Free program director, said she can provide help for people who want or need to quit smoking.
“Two out of three people who smoke want to quit,” Blake said.
“One out of a three people have cancer from smoking and tobacco use,” she said, pointing across the street from her K21 Health Services Pavillion to the hospital. “If we walked over there right now, one out of every three people would be in there with cancer from smoking.”
To contact Blake, or for more information, call 574-372-3500 or stop by the Health Services Pavillion, 1515 Provident Drive, #160, Warsaw.
As far as what the punishment would be for an under-21 smoker, that’s up to the police. It would be a misdemeanor charge that could land the person in court or in jail, depending on the officer’s discretion.
