For six and a half years a South Plains mother has been working with state legislation to get a ‘No Texting While Driving’ bill.
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness month and TX DOT is sharing it’s Talk. Text. Crash. Campaign to raise awareness of the dangers.
Jeanne Brown is continuously encouraging drivers to put the phones down and advocates for legislation to change in Texas. Her daughter, Alex Brown, died from texting while driving in 2009.
“If the choices that I make can protect somebody else’s life I need to make those choices,” said Brown.
The tragic accident prompted her family to travel for three and a half years sharing to youth across the country what happened to their daughter Alex. The family continue pushing to change the laws here locally.
“The first time we got the bill through we got it to Senator Perry and he didn’t sign it and he said we need education and in six and a half years we have been educating and in those years there have been hundreds of people killed while we’ve been educating,” said Brown.
According to TX DOT more than 100,000 traffic crashes in Texas each year involve distracted driving.
“We need our legislators to step up,” said Brown. “Enough is enough, Texas lives are important.”
Currently only some cities have ordinances in Texas banning texting while driving and the nearest City to Lubbock with an ordinance is Amarillo and Canyon, according to TX DOT.
“Every city right now in Texas that has a law against using your cell phone while driving has different stipulations on it against using your phone,” said Brown. “Some you can’t text or drive, some you can’t talk at all and drive, some you can use a head phone or sync, but you can’t use your phone, well they are not consistent across the state.”
Brown travels to Austin as often as she can to promote the ‘Alex Brown Memorial Act’ in order to ban texting while driving. Brown said she will keep trying to get lawmakers to vote on a bill.
For more information on the TX DOT campaign visit: Talk. Text. Crash.
