SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Police think Cesar Ramirez was text messaging while driving.
Authorities said he was shot Friday night after another driver became irritated with his erratic driving. They said Ramirez was typing out a message on his cell phone.
Theodore Jorgensen was about to text message when he ran a red light killing Lauren Mulkey last year in Salt Lake City.He’s now doing time in prison.
A new federal study concludes driving while talking on a cell phone or texting is like a drunk driver behind the wheel.
"Oh definitely,” said Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol. “Once you get a cell phone into a situation, it does add for increase risk.”
The Utah legislature refuses to pass laws that would restrict cell phone usage on the highways.
Rep. Todd Kisser of Sandy said he voted against those bills because people need to make calls.
"Part of our need to run a business is to have phones available to use them in cars," he said.
Another problem for lawmakers who vote against cell phone restrictions is enforcement.
I’m not entirely sold on it from the standpoint of ‘can we enforce it, is it going to be effective’”, said Rep. Brad Daw of Orem.
But sending text messages while driving is something both lawmakers said is wrong and they claim they could be persuaded to ban it on Utah’shighways.
That’s the idea behind Rep. Paul Ray's proposal: no texting while driving.
“Driving is not a constitutional right, it’s a privilege granted by the state,” said the Davis County lawmaker. "If we can restrict drinking and driving, we should certainly restrict anything else that causes potential harm and this is very high risk.”
Ray’s proposal would also restrict cell phone usage when drivers enter a school zone or a parking lot.
If Utah gets a no texting while driving law in place, it would become the tenth state to do so.
