"House Bill 283, introduced Monday, calls for a ban on writing, sending or reading texts, viewing videos or taking photos, live streaming and using applications while driving."
State Senator Andrew Brenner thought it'd be a good idea to participate in the video meeting while on the highway, but chose a background for the Zoom call that looked kind of funny...Probably the seatbelt did, too.
The video can be watched in full on the Ohio Channel website, here.
Source: Columbus Dispatch
On the same day a distracted driving bill was introduced, state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, participated in a government video meeting while driving.
"I wasn't distracted. I was paying attention to the driving and listening to it (the meeting,)" Brenner said. "I had two meetings that were back to back that were in separate locations. And I've actually been on other calls, numerous calls, while driving. Phone calls for the most part but on video calls, I'm not paying attention to the video. To me, it's like a phone call."
He added that he was parked during most of the video meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board. "I was wearing a seat belt and paying attention to the road."
House Bill 283, introduced Monday, calls for a ban on writing, sending or reading texts, viewing videos or taking photos, live streaming and using applications while driving.
It would also make holding or using an electronic device while driving a primary offense, which would permit police to pull the driver over. Currently, texting while driving is a secondary offense for drivers over 18, which means police must witness another moving violation before pulling the driver over.
This Ohio State Senator thought he was slick, using a Zoom background of his home office while driving... debating a bill for harsher penalties for distracted driving https://t.co/XfangsLaHX pic.twitter.com/r55ti7bsma
— Brody Logan (@BrodyLogan) May 6, 2021
UPDATE: Snopes says the meeting was not actually about House Bill 283, distracted driving. It's still an absurd thing to do. He wasn't fooling anyone.
✅ Yes, Ohio State Sen. Andrew Brenner used an office background while driving during a Zoom meeting....
❌ But the meeting had nothing to do with distracted driving. https://t.co/8kwNQLu5sM pic.twitter.com/mGNn95lmRn— snopes.com (@snopes) May 6, 2021
