Wyoming Becomes 20th State to Enact Ban on Text Messaging While Driving

Cheyenne, Wyo. 3/16/10 - On March 10, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal signed into law SF 20, making the state the 20th to enact a ban on text messaging while driving.  This is the first enactment of the year and the 2nd enactment since AAA’s campaign launched last September to pass laws banning text messaging by drivers in all 50 states by 2013. Wyoming’s new law will be standard enforcement and will take effect July 1, 2010. 

“The new technologies that help us multitask in our everyday lives and increasingly popular social media sites present a hard-to-resist challenge to the typically safe driver,” said Denice Harris, AAA Spokeswoman. “Wyoming’s enacted texting ban for drivers will help halt the spread of this dangerous practice among motorists in the state.”

The popularity of texting has grown quickly over the past four years. According to the wireless industry trade association, CTIA, the number of monthly texting messages reached 110 billion at the end of 2008, a more than 11-fold increase in three years. Studies have shown texting while driving to be an extremely dangerous distraction for drivers due to the extended time drivers spend not looking at the road.

“AAA commends Wyoming’s Legislature for taking a stand against distracted driving and hopes other states will follow in their footsteps,” said Harris.

The following 20 states and the District of Columbia now ban all drivers from texting behind the wheel: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

The text of Wyoming SF 20 is available here.

AAA MountainWest is dedicated to providing its over 170,000 members in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming with travel, insurance, financial and auto-related services. A fully tax-paying, not-for-profit corporation, AAA MountainWest, Inc. works for the improvement of motoring and traveling conditions and is a leader for travel, civic and safety issues. In 2008, AAA was voted the #1 socially responsible business brand in America by Landor’s BrandAsset® Valuator. AAA can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com. To have up-to-date news and safety information from AAA delivered right to your desktop, sign-up for the new RSS Feed at http://mtw.aaashare.com/index.php#rss.

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