Texting and driving is now illegal in Virginia, in fact the law has been on the books for more than six months. So how many tickets have been written for people breaking that law? The police departments in several jurisdictions tell CBS 6 not many, because the texting and driving law is difficult to enforce.
Texting behind the wheel is a secondary offense, which means a police officer has to see you committing a primary offense like speeding or running a stoplight to ticket you for it.
Many feel the law should be tougher.
Theresa Smith knows just how dangerous texting and driving can be. She says, "I did text and drive up until the point where I had a small accident, an incident, which was last year coming to a stoplight, I kind of eased into the back of a woman."
Chris Balch was hit by a driver texting. He says, "I was sitting at a stoplight, a few months ago on my motorcycle and a man driving a mini van ran into the back of me and i asked him what he was doing and he said he was texting on his phone."
CBS 6 found statistics on the number of tickets written in Central Virginia for texting while driving is hard to come by. At least three police departments say they haven't written any since the law was enacted last year and many admit it is a difficult law to enforce.
Sgt. Haywood James with the Petersburg Police Department says, "I've seen a lot of instances where someone was texting while driving and I didn't have another reason to actually pull them over. Is it frustrating? Yes, it is frustrating."
Delegate David Bulova of Fairfax sponsored a house bill to make texting while driving a primary offense. It didn't make it past a subcommittee this year.
Del. Bulova says, "From my estimation, I think the results are clear, we haven't had tickets written and we're still seeing the number of highway crashes move up. So I would have loved to have seen it done this year, but I'll be back next year and as long as it takes."
CBS 6 Legal Analyst Todd Stone says, "It's not practical to expect someone's going to get charged with this as a secondary offense, but it's there and its there to serve as a deterrent to people I think."
Del. Bulova says his bill had plenty of supporters this year and believe next year he will have even more.
AAA Mid-Atlantic says they originally lobbied for the bill in hopes it would serves as a deterrent, but they also want to see texting while driving become a primary offense.
Texting behind the wheel is a secondary offense, which means a police officer has to see you committing a primary offense like speeding or running a stoplight to ticket you for it.
Many feel the law should be tougher.
Theresa Smith knows just how dangerous texting and driving can be. She says, "I did text and drive up until the point where I had a small accident, an incident, which was last year coming to a stoplight, I kind of eased into the back of a woman."
Chris Balch was hit by a driver texting. He says, "I was sitting at a stoplight, a few months ago on my motorcycle and a man driving a mini van ran into the back of me and i asked him what he was doing and he said he was texting on his phone."
CBS 6 found statistics on the number of tickets written in Central Virginia for texting while driving is hard to come by. At least three police departments say they haven't written any since the law was enacted last year and many admit it is a difficult law to enforce.
Sgt. Haywood James with the Petersburg Police Department says, "I've seen a lot of instances where someone was texting while driving and I didn't have another reason to actually pull them over. Is it frustrating? Yes, it is frustrating."
Delegate David Bulova of Fairfax sponsored a house bill to make texting while driving a primary offense. It didn't make it past a subcommittee this year.
Del. Bulova says, "From my estimation, I think the results are clear, we haven't had tickets written and we're still seeing the number of highway crashes move up. So I would have loved to have seen it done this year, but I'll be back next year and as long as it takes."
CBS 6 Legal Analyst Todd Stone says, "It's not practical to expect someone's going to get charged with this as a secondary offense, but it's there and its there to serve as a deterrent to people I think."
Del. Bulova says his bill had plenty of supporters this year and believe next year he will have even more.
AAA Mid-Atlantic says they originally lobbied for the bill in hopes it would serves as a deterrent, but they also want to see texting while driving become a primary offense.
