New Mexico Latest State to Ban Texting While Driving

A proposal to ban texting while driving in New Mexico will become a state law.

Gov. Susana Martinez will sign the bill Sunday afternoon while visiting the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque.

The proposal will prohibit drivers from sending or reading text messages and emails, or making Internet searches from smartphones or other hand-held wireless devices. There would be a $25 fine for a first violation and $50 for subsequent violations.

The bill would make exceptions for situations such as summoning medical or other emergency aid.

Forty-one other states ban texting by all drivers.

New Mexico already prohibits texting for teenage drivers with a learner’s or provisional license.