Hands-Free Cell Phone Usage Moving Forward

Legislation that would require hands-free cell phone use for Minnesota drivers has been approved in its first committee stop-the Minnesota House Transportation Finance and Policy Division. State representative John Petersburg is a member of that committee. Petersburg points out that not only those injured or killed in distracted driving accidents are affected but also the  person responsible for the accident.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety recently announced that citations for texting while driving increased in Minnesota for a sixth straight year. A total of 9,545 tickets were issued in 2018 which is a 30% increase from 2017. In all texting citations have gone up by 459 percent since 2012.

As least 27 traffic deaths in Minnesota in 2018 can be tied to distracted driving. So far there have been at least two traffic deaths in 2019 connected with distracted driving.

Yes, it's cold. And we can expect even colder temperatures next week. Read more here.