Legislation that makes it illegal to text while driving in Oklahoma has been approved by the state Senate.
Senate members voted 42-3 for the bill on Wednesday and sent it to the state House for consideration. A similar bill has already been approved in the House.
The measure would make it illegal to drive while using a hand-held electronic device to compose, send or read electronic messages while driving.
The law would be enforced as a secondary offense, meaning an individual would have to be detained for another traffic violation to be cited for texted and driving.
The law would not apply if the driver was using their cellphone to contact law enforcement, an emergency operator, firefighters or other emergency responders.
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