By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Senate has — again — passed a bill that would penalize motorists who handle a smart phone while driving. Republican Senator Mark Lofgren of Muscatine said it hopefully will reign in distracted drivers.

“We’ve all witnessed it as we’ve traveled highways and interstates back and forth to the capitol,” Lofgren said. “Twenty-five years ago the problem was not as prevalent, but today it is prevalent and it continues to get worse.”

The bill has passed the senate in previous years and the vote on it today was 47-1. Senator Dan Zumbach, a Republican from Ryan, said after eight years, the bill’s time has come.

“Let’s face it. We’ve all been that distracted driver,” Zumbach said. “It’s come to to the point where….we didn’t want to take those freedoms away from each other because….’What about drinking a big Coke from McDonalds?.’ and ‘What about grabbing this and grabbing that?’ It’s all distracted driving, but now those distracted drivers are taking my freedoms away by putting me at risk.”

There are some exemptions in the bill for people like bus drivers and people driving farm machinery. Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, voted for the bill, but argued people driving tractors and combines shouldn’t be handling a smart phone, too.

“That’s great as long as it’s not my family driving up the secondary highway,” Bisignano said, “because that’s where the tragedy strikes.”

Senator William Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, said it’s time to get this bill across the finish line. “Just going home last week, a car switched into the lane while I was in town yet…They went back into their lane and here this individual was holding up his cell phone, watching a video,” Dotzler said. “…We all have stories like that.”

The bill now goes to the House, where it has stalled over the past several years. However, in January Governor Reynolds used part of her annual address to lawmakers to call on legislators to send the bill to her desk this year.