A Reminder About Texting While Driving, and Other Safety Issues for the New Year

As 2010 really gets under way and we're past the holiday season, it's a good time to remind Loudoun County motorists about the rules and laws of the road, including texting while driving.

Virginia House Bill 1876 (Text Messaging and Emailing While Driving) prohibits operation of a motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth while using any handheld personal communications device to manually enter multiple letters or text or to read a text message, provides exemptions for using global positioning systems (GPS), reading caller identification information, and using a wireless telecommunications device to report an emergency, exempts operators of emergency vehicles.

And a good Web site to visit is the Governor's Highway Safety Association Web page on Virginia's driving information and laws. The page features information on texting while driving, as well as the use of cell phones, child passenger safety laws, drug impared and drunk driving and more.

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office also features an online traffic incidents listing that features the latest traffic incidents on county roadways that shows where Sheriff's office personnel are on scene throughout the county. The Virginia Department of Transportation also offers road alerts as well.

Let's strive to make this year safe on Loudoun County roadways.

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