HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1160        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3160

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Nine

_______________

An Act prohibiting text messaging, and reading, writing, or sending electronic messaging while driving..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 2. Said chapter 90, as so appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby  further  amended by inserting after section 13A the following section:—

Section 13B.  Except as provided in Section 13 of this chapter, a person operating a moving motor vehicle who, by means of a mobile telephone or an  electronic wireless communications device, other than a voice-activated global  positioning or navigation system that is permanently affixed to the vehicle, sends, reads, or writes a text message, is guilty of a secondary motor vehicle violation. As used in this Section, a mobile telephone means an electronic wireless device that has an internal feature or function for wireless communications that shall include, but is not limited to talking or listening to another person on the telephone, text messaging, or sending an electronic or text message to another mobile wireless telephone or other electronic communication devices.

Enforcement of the provisions of this section prohibiting text messaging or sending, reading, writing, and responding to an electronic message via a mobile telephone or other electronic communication device during the operation of a motor vehicle by State or local law enforcement officers shall be enforced as a secondary motor vehicle offense.