ACTION ALERT: Statewide 3 ft Passing AND Distracted Driving

UPDATE: The Ohio House passed HB154 on Tuesday, May 24th. Now we need your help getting it through the Ohio Senate before recess.

Two action alerts both directed towards the Ohio House of Representatives.

Ohio 3ft Passing Bill – HB154

We recently learned that the Ohio House will finally be taking HB154 to the floor for a vote. That vote will take place on Wednesday, May 25th.

Please contact your local Ohio House Representative telling them to support HB 154. You can find contact information here. If you need some talking points you can find them in a letter we supplied the Speaker of the House’s Policy director here.

For reference: House Bill 154 would require motorists to give 3-feet of passing clearance, as well as allow bicycles to proceed through a red light that does not detect the bicycle (effectively non-functioning for the bike rider) after stopping and yielding the right of way.

Ohio’s Distracted Driving Bill – SB146

The Ohio House Judiciary Committee  has been sitting on Senate Bill 146 would create an enhanced penalty for “distracted driving” that would come into play when a driver is pulled over for another moving violation, which is currently a minor misdemeanor offense under Ohio law. The legislation would require that the person cited for distracted driving pay a fine of one hundred dollars for each offense. While this law isn’t perfect, it is a step in the right direction towards improving the safety of our streets by reducing distracted driving.

Please contact Rep. Jim Butler, the chair of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee, and tell him to pass SB146 and so it can go to the Ohio House for a vote.  Rep. Butlers contact information can be found here. 

For reference here are some talking points: Automobile accidents in Ohio are the No. 1 killer for those ages 8 to 24. Statistics show that someone is killed in an auto accident every 7.8 hours in Ohio and every 16 minutes nationwide. 11 percent of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. Between 2006 and 2012, 214 people died and 3,182 people were seriously injured in crashes where the driver was distracted/fatigued. A full infographic on distracted driving can be found here.