It’s been five months since Texas joined 47 other states in banning texting while driving, and EverythingLubbock.com got a look at the number of citations given out so far in Lubbock and across the state.

“I was afraid they were just going to blow off the law and not enforce it, so I’m glad to see they are,” Brownfield mother Jeanne Brown said after seeing the data.

Brown lost her daughter Alex in a texting-and-driving accident in 2009.

“They’d found her phone, and she’d been texting four different friends on the way to school, and then the truck rolled,” Brown said. “She didn’t even have time to try to stop because she didn’t realize what was happening, she wasn’t looking at the road.”

The Browns turned their nightmare into a crusade for their daughter, spending the next seven years advocating for the “Alex Brown Memorial Act.” It went through all the legislative hurdles, and was signed into law. Then, on September 1, 2017, the law went into effect.

According to Texas Department of Public Safety records, since that day, their troopers have given out 1,384 warnings, but 100 actual citations. In Lubbock county, DPS had given 13 warnings and 0 citations. 

Inside the city limits of Lubbock, the trend is the same, with Lubbock Police giving out many warnings to raise awareness in these first few months, and just 12 citations. To break it down: 

September – 5 citations

October – 1 citation

November – 5 citations

December – 1 citation

Officer Tino Blanco with LPD’s Traffic Patrol Division said, with any new traffic law, there can be an adjustment period for officers and drivers.

“We have got to adjust to it as well, to come up with new ways of how we are observing these laws,” Blanco said. “But, it gives us more options as far as pulling over somebody and increasing awareness. Letting them know, ‘Hey what you are doing could ultimately hurt someone or hurt yourself.’”

There were concerns over how the law would be implemented because it doesn’t ban all cell phone use: only electronic communication like texting, emailing or Facebook messaging. Additionally, the officer must visually see the violation occur.

“They are in one vehicle, we are in another vehicle. You basically have to stare at them for a good while to see exactly what they are doing,” Blanco said.

That ticket can range from $25-$99 for first-time offenders, but police want to remind drivers texting and driving is not the only problem. Anytime drivers take their eyes off the road – to change the radio or talk to a backseat passenger – they put themselves at risk for a wreck, along with other traffic violations.

“They might be just on their cell phone just talking on it, but it’s causing them to move into somebody else’s lane or it’s caused them to not see that red light and so they ran it,” Blanco said.

When it comes to distracted driving, Brown said everyone does it because nobody thinks an accident will happen to them.

“You’re going, ‘What I have to do is more important than you,’” she said. “We don’t say that, but by choosing to do what we want to do, whether it is safe or not.”

Brown says a life is worth far more than a texting and driving ticket.

“That thing that had all of her attention…that was free with a two-year contract, that she was ready to throw away and get rid of, survived a wreck that my daughter, who can not be replaced and is invaluable, died from,” she said. “What’s your priority? You can’t be replaced.”