Texting while driving is now against the law in Lake Saint Louis, regardless of the age of the driver.
The city’s Board of Aldermen approved a bill prohibits texting while drive by a 6-0 vote at their Oct. 20 meeting. The bill goes a step beyond current state law and bans texting for all drivers, age 21 and older. The state law prohibits texting only for drivers age 21 and younger.
Alderman John Pellerito (Ward 3) had introduced the bill earlier this month after a similar bill he filed was dropped in May. He said he brought the bill back will the adoption of similar ordinances by Kirkwood and St. Charles in September.
Manchester, Florissant and St. John are other cities with similar ordinances.
Older drivers are also guilty of using electronic devices that distract them and cause accidents, he said. The bill does not restrict the use of cellphones for telephone calls and allows texting in emergency situations. The bill also doesn’t apply to a driver who is legally parked or stopped, or the use of GPS map systems, voice activated technology or two-way radios.
Earlier this year, aldermen heard the ordinance would be difficult to enforce. City Police Chief Mike Force said in September that strict enforcement is difficult because it’s hard to observe someone texting. But Pellerito and Force said the bill was about education and getting the message out to people to discourage texting while driving.
The bill was adopted will little debate although Alderman Tony Zito (Ward 1) asked City Attorney Matthew Leh if police officers had a right to confiscate the cellphone during a traffic stop. Leh said probably not due to rights of privacy.
He also said the burden of proof for a violation would rest on the prosecutor in municipal court if a driver contends that he or she was making an emergency call when pulled over.
