Panel updates distracted-driving law to cover vehicle screens and other displays

Representative Steer told the committee House File 3,241 updates an outdated statutory phrase that referred to "television screen" and replaces it with language such as "display of electronic content" so modern navigation and infotainment systems are covered.

Steer said troopers had difficulty prosecuting offenses under the old wording because court decisions found modern navigation screens did not qualify as a television. The committee considered an A1 amendment and an oral amendment from Representative Greene to narrow an exemption for devices installed in law-enforcement vehicles by inserting "while used in the performance of official duties." The panel adopted the amendments.

Mike Hansen, director of the Department of Public Safety's Office of Traffic Safety, described a camera-assisted enforcement pilot on Highway 7 (Excelsior/South Lake Minnetonka) that detected about 10,000 instances of device use in a single February and produced an increase in citations from 59 to 305 in the month following deployment. "On average year, 30 Minnesotans are killed as a result of distracted driving," Hansen said, and he urged statutory modernization to address new in-vehicle technology.

Committee members asked about data collection, evidence preservation and whether other jurisdictions could run similar camera-assisted programs; Hansen said evidence files are created, officers can download and preserve them, and other jurisdictions have requested funding for similar pilots.

The committee moved HF 3,241, as amended, to the general register.