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Arizona Senator Steve Farley has been fighting for years for a state ban on texting while driving.
The recent sentencing of a truck driver who was using his smartphone when he caused a deadly highway collision has re-ignited focus on the ban.
Jorge Espinoza was sentenced to six years in jail by a judge in Yuma last week. Espinoza was convicted of negligent homicide in the 2013 collision that killed Department of Public Safety Officer Tim Hoffman.
Police say Espinoza was using his smartphone when his semi-truck crashed into Hoffman’s patrol car on the shoulder of Interstate 8.
The case made national headlines. Despite the influential role the court decided Espinoza's mobile device played in causing the collision, Arizona remains one of the only states to not have a ban on using smartphones while driving.
"It’s just us and Montana left at this point. It’s just….it’s infuriating at this point," said State Senator Steve Farley.
Farley has been trying to get a texting ban passed in Arizona for several years. His most recent attempt failed in a senate committee in February.
Farley said he’s received support from Democrats and Republicans, but the ban won’t pass because it’s opposed by the most powerful person in the Arizona Senate: Senate President Andy Biggs.
“It’s always been blocked by Andy Biggs. It is his personal belief that there are too many laws on the books and he doesn’t want to have this as a law," Farley said.
He said he plans to introduce legislation banning the practice next year, and every year after, until Montana is the only state left without a law against texting while driving.
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