Inaction from the state House killed a bill that aimed to ban adults from talking on cellphones while driving, except when using a hands-free accessory like a Bluetooth headset.

Though Senate Bill 175 passed the Senate in a 24-10 vote in April and passed the House Transportation Committee in a 12-1 vote on May 2, the House Appropriations Committee failed to schedule the bill before Tuesday’s midnight deadline. Because the legislative session ends on Wednesday, it is impossible for the bill to move forward.

“We have missed a chance to reduce road deaths and injuries,” said Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, who sponsored the bill. “The bill was unprofessionally held in appropriations. … I talked with the House sponsor this morning and we plan to introduce it early in the 2023 session and get it to the governor’s desk.”

Under current law, adult drivers are allowed to use cellphones for calls but they cannot text or browse the internet. If passed, the bill would have prohibited all hand-held cellphone use. Drivers under the age of 18 are already prohibited from all cellphone use, including hands-free.

This is the fourth time Colorado lawmakers have unsuccessfully tried to ban talking on the phone while driving. In 2020, Hansen sponsored SB20-65, which is nearly identical to SB-175. Hansen’s predecessor, Sen. Lois Court, D-Denver, also pushed similar bills in 2018 and 2019.

Susan Dane of Coloradans Organized for Responsible Driving said she was “hurt” and “frustrated” to see SB-175 killed. Dane and her organization have backed all the proposed bills against distracted driving since 2016, when her friends Brian and Jacquie Lehner were killed by a texting driver who crossed a double yellow line and hit the couple head-on.

“The number of crashes that are going to occur before we get this bill passed … it breaks my heart,” Dane said. “We’re not going to give up until we get it done but it feels like the House Appropriations Committee didn’t hear us. I honestly think if it made it to the House floor it would have gotten enough votes. To me, that doesn’t feel like how the legislative process is supposed to work.”

Hansen said Rep. Leslie Herod, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told him the bill was scheduled to be heard in the committee on Monday but then held the bill without explanation.

Herod, D-Denver, said the delay of the bill stemmed from disagreements about changing the bill to make talking on the phone while driving a secondary offense, meaning law enforcement could not pull over a driver for talking on the phone but could ticket a driver for it if they were already being pulled over for a primary offense.

Herod pointed to a statement from Bicycle Colorado that said the organization did not support SB-175 because they “no longer support road safety efforts that require officer-initiated enforcement.”

“Bicycle Colorado is an important constituency in my district and throughout Denver,” Herod said. “We tried to get there but couldn’t find common ground. I’m committed to continue working on this issue.”

Policing concerns killed the 2020 version of the bill as well. That bill passed the Senate but was voted down in a House committee due to arguments that it would result in disproportionate policing and racial profiling. Hansen said he updated the bill this year to include demographic reporting and a requirement that police cannot issue the citation unless they explicitly see a driver using their phone.

Hansen criticized the decision to intentionally prevent the bill from reaching the House floor, calling it “unprofessional.” Hansen, who is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said this behavior does not align with how the Senate handles the committee.

“It has a very small appropriation, around $20,000, so that is clearly not the issue,” Hansen said. “If you want to oppose the bill on the floor that is fine, but we are confident that this version is a significant improvement to the 2020 version and would pass in the House.”

Using hand-held cellphones while driving is already banned in 24 states and Washington D.C., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Last year, 91% of Coloradans admitted to driving while distracted, according to a survey from the Colorado Department of Transportation. The survey found that 54% of drivers said they read text messages while driving and nearly 50% talk on cellphones without hands-free accessories – which would have been prohibited under the bill.

In 2020, there were 10,166 car crashes involving distracted drivers in Colorado, resulting in 1,476 injuries and 68 deaths, the department said. In 2021, there was a 47% increase in fatal crashes caused by distracted driving statewide, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

The Democrat-sponsored bill received both bipartisan support and opposition. Of the 10 senators who voted against the bill, seven are Republicans and three are Democrats.

“I find these attempts to be virtually unenforceable and a new, unnecessary burden on law enforcement who should really be spending their efforts to curb the violent crime wave we are seeing in Colorado,” said opponent Sen. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, calling the bill, “another effort to have the government dictating good judgement to our otherwise law-abiding and safe driving citizens.”

Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, said he voted against previous efforts to pass the ban but supported the newest bill.

Holbert said, in 2010, he nearly rear-ended another car because he was looking at his phone while driving and didn’t see that traffic had stopped. A few years ago, he said he was on his phone while stopped at a red light and he ran the light after hearing someone honk their horn, mistakenly assuming they were honking at him because the light turned green.

“I’m not innocent. I think none of us could claim complete innocence with these devices in our cars,” Holbert said. “But how many times do we need to see that, how many times do we need to be the victim of that before we recognize? … We have to step in and say, no.”