Texting while driving hard to enforce - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The caller to 911 called him "an erratic driver." In Columbus Thursday, several callers reported the same driver to 911 dispatchers.

Caller: "He just crossed over the yellow line several times. Something is wrong."

Columbus Police Lt. Matt Myers said, "Other drivers were very concerned about this individual."

The report of a "drunk driver on 46 going west" turned out not to be a drunk at all.
 
Police radio traffic: "He's having a hard time staying on the road. We've got officers trying to catch up."

At 7th and Central, the man finally came to a stop when police say he ran a red light and slammed into a 70-year-old woman's car.

Lt. Myers said, "The driver did state they texted on their cell phone earlier but not at the time of the accident. At the time of the accident it was due to the sun in their eyes."

But police don't buy that. The sun was in another direction. Whatever their suspicions about texting while driving, by law, police could not take the man's phone to make their case. They ticketed him for running a red light.

Texting while driving isn't illegal until the car is in motion.  And how do you know somebody is texting? They could be checking a GPS or website or dialing the phone.  All those ARE legal.

Eyewitness News did a quick experiment with a public safety employee sitting in a car with a smart phone. We watched and recorded her perform some functions.  The video we captured looked like she was texting.

"I was getting ready to call someone," she said.  Our assumptions were wrong twice more. "Even with my work and stuff," she said, " I can't tell what people are doing even when I pull beside them in a car."

State Police, and other agencies including Bloomington, have written relatively few tickets too, because, while our driver looks to be texting, "I am really reading an email," she said.

That would be illegal while the car is moving.

Lt. Myers says the law is "a starting point. But we, as local law enforcement, would like to see an emphasis put on a distracted law or a driver inattention law."

Such legislation would outlaw everything from eating to web surfing to texting.