Senate Bill No. 405

(By Senator Love)

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[Introduced February 4, 2000; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article fourteen, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section fourteen, relating to providing that causing or contributing to the injury of a person or property while driving using a hand-held telephone or hand-held mobile radio is a misdemeanor; and providing criminal penalty.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article fourteen, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section fourteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 14. MISCELLANEOUS RULES.
§17C-14-14. Causing injury while driving using telephone or radio.

Any person who operates a motor vehicle on a public highway while using a hand-held telephone or hand-held mobile radio, and while using the telephone or radio proximately causes or contributes to the injury of any person or property, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars.




NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make it a crime to operate a motor vehicle on a public highway while using a hand-held telephone or hand-held mobile radio, if while using the telephone or radio the operator proximately causes or contributes to the injury of any person or property.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.