Coming soon: You will no longer be able to text while driving in Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed the bill into law, ending a decade-long effort by safety advocates to reduce potentially deadly driver distractions on the road.
Texas was among the few remaining states that did not have the law and it now joins 47 other states.
The law will take effect on September 1 and it makes texting punishable by a fine of up to $99 for first-time offenders and $200 for repeat offenses.
The ban only covers texting and does not cover other phone use such as Internet and GPS applications.
In 2011, former Governor Rick Perry vetoed such a similar proposal calling it a “government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.”
As late as last week. Abbott seemed undecided on whether he was going to sign the bill into law.
In March church bus crash killed 13 people when a driver in a pickup truck hit the bus while he was checking for a text. He had also taken prescription drugs.
