Family seeks texting ban on roads

From HCNONLINE.com:

The family of a man who died when his motorcycle was struck by the vehicle of a driver reading a cell phone text message wants texting while driving to be outlawed in Texas.

Recent legislation prohibits any use of cell phones in school zones throughout Texas and for drivers under 17 with restricted licenses. Efforts to ban or reduce any use of cell phones while driving, however, withered in various committees of the Texas Legislature last session.

Jonathan David Porter, 22, of New Caney, was sentenced in the 435th state District Court of Judge Michael Seiler to 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail after pleading guilty Thursday to the felony charges of criminally negligent homicide and failure to stop and render aid. Porter left the scene of a fatal wreck March 16 that killed Douglas Allen Jr., of Splendora.

Allen was attempting a left turn in front of the Porter Sports Bar on Loop 494 around 8 p.m. when the motorcycle was struck from behind by a 2006 Honda sedan driven by Porter. The impact pushed Allen’s 2002 Harley-Davidson motorcycle into oncoming traffic.

Allen, whose wife worked at the sports bar, then was hit by a Chevy Tahoe.

Just before he hit Allen’s motorcycle, Porter was reading a text message that had come in on his cell phone, which he had placed on the passenger seat, said Tay Bond, Porter’s attorney.

“When someone sent him a text message he heard come in on his phone ... he momentarily looked at his phone to discern what it was,” Bond said. “When he looked up, Mr. Allen had slowed to turn left, with his blinker on.”

Porter was not texting when the accident occurred, Bond said.

“He was not putting in input into his phone to send a text message,” he said. “This was a tragic accident. If Mr. Porter had stayed on the scene, he would not have put himself in the position he was in.”

Porter fled the scene after hitting Allen’s motorcycle, and he abandoned his vehicle about a mile past the wreck scene, fleeing on foot into the woods, said Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt, who prosecuted the case.

He turned himself in to police the next day, Bond said.

“When he contacted his father, his father said, ‘When I get back into town, we are going immediately to the police,’” he said. “Mr. Porter agreed. That’s exactly what they did the next day, without benefit of an attorney.”

While Allen’s family doesn’t believe Porter was punished enough, they now want to concentrate their efforts on banning texting while driving through the state, said Connie Houchin, a longtime close friend of the family who is staying with Betty Allen, Douglas Allen’s mother.

“We know if it’s happened to us, it’s happened to others,” she said. “Last week, I saw two accidents that nearly happened in a parking lot because the drivers were texting.”

Houchin’s daughter lives in California, she said, which has a comprehensive ban on the use of handheld cell phones while driving. A ban on text messaging while driving goes into effect there Jan. 1.

California is one of six states, along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that prohibit all drivers from talking on handheld devices while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (ghsa.org). Nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers.

In addition to novice drivers, Texas also prohibits school bus drivers from all use of cell phones when students are riding.

Montgomery County legislators did not return calls seeking comment on whether they believe the Legislature should pass a statewide ban on text messaging.

But several cities in Texas, including Austin, have passed their own bans on texting while driving within city limits. It’s an issue the city of Conroe could take a look at sometime in the future, Mayor Webb Melder said.

“It’s probably a subject that will wind up crossing our paths,” he said. “Sooner or later, things come to our attention, like smoking or bad dogs.”

Porter could have faced up to 10 years in prison for the failure to stop and render aid charge, and up to two years in state jail for the charge of criminally negligent homicide, according to the Texas Penal Code.

Prosecutors had asked that Porter receive some prison time, Prewitt said.

“We felt it was the type of case that warrants incarceration,” he said. “That’s the decision the judge made, and we will certainly abide by it.”

Porter also must undergo a motorcycle awareness course and notify others who attend the course about the details of the wreck and Allen’s death, Prewitt said.

In addition to the 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail, which he is now serving, Porter received five years’ probation for criminally negligent homicide and 10 years’ probation for failure to stop and render aid – the longest period of probation the judge could give him for that charge, Bond said.

“My feeling is that the court weighed the decision of the Porter family to make Jonathan available to the police the next morning, to admit what he had done, to never deny the circumstances of the accident and to accept the responsibility for it by pleading guilty,” Bond said.

No witnesses to the accident reported any erratic driving by Porter, he said.

“The most important issue in the case is the Porter family feels extremely bad for the Allen family. Certainly the Allen family is having to deal with a lot more,” he said.

“This is a good lesson about how a moment’s distraction can have horrible, lifelong consequences.”

Something needs to be done in Texas about texting while driving, Houchin said, and it’s the Allen family’s hope that something will be done soon.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she said, “and maybe this is the reason.”