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New texting while driving law nets 1 on the first day

It is now illegal to text while driving in the state of Nebraska. The law went into effect July 15th. In Bellevue, the first car accident responded to by BPD on that day was caused by a driver who was texting. The 16 year old driver admits to texting while driving. Captain Herb Evers said that the law will sometimes be hard to enforce because it's difficult for officers to see with certainty that a driver is using a mobile device to send or receive a text. Evers added, ?I think the guys did a good investigation. The text was still on the screen. We could have proven it even if she had not admitted it."

The accident happened on Highway 370. The driver was heading west bound and looked down to delete or read a text message. She veered to the left, hit the center island running over a traffic sign and nearly collided with head-on traffic. She was charged with violation of the texting law which carries, as a first offense, a $200 fine and 3 points assessed.

The texting law is a secondary offense which means a driver would have to have been stopped for a something else first.