It has been a long process, but Oklahoma lawmakers have now successfully passed legislation to ban texting while driving.
Today, the final step was taken by Governor Mary Fallin when she signed House Bill 1965 into law.
Once the law takes effect, drivers caught sending or reading text messages while driving can be pulled over and ticketed.
Governor Fallin’s office said the bill is named for Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers Nicholas Dees and Keith Burch. They were hit by a passing car while investigating a crash on the side of I-40 in January 2015.
A few other bills made a run at the ban, but HB 1965 was the only one that made texting while driving a primary offense. The other bills would have required you be stopped for something else first, like a busted tail light.
The driver of that car was said to be looking at a social media page while driving.
Trooper Dees died as a result of that crash. Burch was hospitalized, but did survive.