Article published November 25, 2009
Toledo to ban texting while driving; ordinance to go into effect Jan. 1
By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Toledo soon will become the second major city in Ohio to ban text-messaging while driving, under an ordinance city council passed yesterday.
When Mayor Carty Finkbeiner signs the measure, which he brought before council in August, the texting ban will take effect Jan. 1. Repeat violators could face jail time and fines of up to $1,000.
The text-messaging ban language that council approved — by a 10-2 vote — closely follows a similar law in Cleveland that took effect in July. The law forbids typing, sending, reading, or answering messages, or “dialing” numbers on text-messaging devices for those purposes while operating a vehicle. It does not forbid voice communications via cellular telephone, however.
Council President Joe McNamara, who at age 6 witnessed his father's death in a freak traffic accident, said he appreciates the importance of motor-vehicle safety.
“If passage of this law saves one person's life, it was worth it,” Mr. McNamara said after the vote.
A recent Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found that truck drivers' risk of a collision or close call multiplied by 23 times when they were texting behind the wheel.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have banned text-messaging behind the wheel, and similar legislation has been proposed in Ohio.
“I think this issue needs to be handled at the state level,” said Councilman Lindsay Webb, who cast one of the two negative votes yesterday. “You could start a text message in Sylvania Township legally, then enter Toledo and be breaking the law.”
Colleague Michael Ashford gave the same reason for his dissenting vote.
The ordinance passed council without formal discussion.
As urged by council's law and criminal justice committee, the law has a graduated scale for violations.
Conviction for a first text-messaging violation would be a minor misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $150. A second conviction would be a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 maximum fine, while a third violation would be a first-degree misdemeanor, with a top penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Motorists may park to communicate by text message, and an exemption is provided for text-messagers who are communicating with public-safety forces.
Toledo Deputy Police Chief Dan Kenney had said earlier that he would not assign patrols specifically to pull text-messagers over, but would expect officers to stop motorists they observe breaking the law. He said he expects motorists to challenge such stops on the grounds that they were dialing phone numbers.
Also yesterday, a more deeply divided council passed broad new zoning restrictions on building new carryouts in Toledo. After voting down two of three proposed amendments, council voted 7-5 to forbid such stores to be built within 2,000 feet of each other or within 1,000 feet of a school, park, library, day care, or other facility primarily used by children.
The convenience-store ordinance reinstates a city law that expired in 2004 forbidding such businesses within 2,000 feet of each other and adds the restriction concerning schools and other child-frequented locations.
It passed after council agreed, without a vote, to delete an exemption for carryouts that do not sell tobacco products.
Two other proposed amendments also failed.
Councilman Steven Steel proposed deleting the 1,000-foot schools-and-parks restriction on the grounds that it was “over-broad and vague, and would not withstand a legal challenge.”
Thirty-seven of 38 special-use permits the city has issued since 2004 for carryouts would have been denied had the new zoning law been in effect, Mr. Steel said.
“This isn't a regulation of convenience stores. This effectively is a ban,” he said.
But that amendment was defeated by a 10-2 vote.
“The market and the consumer controls the ability to function in a business,” Councilman D. Michael Collins said. Carryouts exist in neighborhoods because consumers support them, he continued; otherwise, “there isn't the ability to pay the light bill.”
But Mr. McNamara said Mr. Steel's amendment would make carryout restrictions “too loose” in a city burdened by “an oversaturation of convenience stores.”
Mr. Collins was joined in voting against the restrictions by Mr. Steel, Tom Waniewski, Betty Shultz, and George Sarantou.
Mr. Sarantou proposed an exemption for stores with more than 3,500 square feet of floor space, but it too was defeated.
In other business yesterday, council:
•Authorized the mayor to apply for and accept a $1.5 million Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund grant toward the cost of flood-control improvements to Peterson Ditch in West Toledo. Toledo's stormwater-utility fund would match the state grant up to a total project cost of $3 million;
•Vacated Westwood Avenue where it crosses the Norfolk Southern Railway in South Toledo, to accommodate future development of an intermodal rail terminal nearby;
•Approved terminating a tax-abatement agreement with ASC Enterprises Inc., on its facility at 812 Matzinger Rd., for failure to make payments in lieu of taxes to the Washington Local Schools, as required by the abatement;
•Authorized the mayor and the director of public utilities to hire collection agencies to pursue delinquent water and sewer charges in the city.
Contact David Patch at:dpatch@theblade.comor 419-724-6094.
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