Soon texting drivers won't be lol

CHESAPEAKE, Va. - If you are someone who likes to text while driving you have until July 1st to do it legally. Next Wednesday there will be a state law against sending text messages while you are behind the wheel of a car.

Most people seem to like the law.

One Suffolk resident, Ashley Harrell, told WAVY.com, "I think it's a great idea. Kids are paying more attention to their cell phones than they are the road."

WAVY.com spent all afternoon Wednesday driving around Hampton Roads looking for anyone texting while driving. We went to Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Newport News and and believe it or not we did not catch one person.

But, we did find one very honest driver who said, "Yes, I have to confess I have texted while driving before and I wasn't paying attention to the road so I could have hurt someone, so it's a good law for me too."

At a news conference Wednesday in Chesapeake promoting the new law, the Chief of Police said his officers are seeing more and more people texting while driving.

"We are capturing data when we investigate accidents and we ask people what they were doing just prior to the accident and some of them are honest and inform us they were distracted by texting," said Col. Kelvin Wright.

Chesapeake Delegate John Cosgrove was the driving force behind the new law against texting while driving. He attended the joint news conference along with representatives from AAA and the Virginia State Police.

"In Georgia last year a truck driver ran into a school bus and killed one kid and injured several others because he was texting his wife while driving that 18-wheeler," said Del. Cosgrove.

As of July 1 a ticket for texting while driving brings with it a $20 fine. It is considered a secondary offense, just like the seatbelt law. You have to be doing something else illegal, like speeding, for police to stop you and charge you with texting while driving.