Thursday marks the effective date of Washington’s revised law on using mobile phones and texting while driving. In this special edition of Traffic Q&A, we answer some frequently asked questions about the law.

Got questions of your own? Post them as a comment we’ll do our best to get them answered.

Isn’t it already a violation to text or have a cell phone on your ear while driving?

Yes. State laws banning texting while driving and requiring a hand-free device for talking on a mobile device while driving went into effect in 2008. But under the law, the violations were considered “secondary offenses,” citable only if an officer pulled you over for a another violation. Still, the Washington State Patrol has written about 3,000 tickets and given 5,900 warnings since the laws went into effect.

What’s new?

The 2010 Legislature made both texting and driving with a non hands-free cell phone primary offenses. That means police can pull you over if they see you texting or on the phone. The WSP has said troopers will immediately start enforcing the primary offense Thursday – it considers two years an ample grace period.

Drivers with instruction permits or intermediate licenses cannot use any type of wireless device while driving, except for emergencies.

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Got this from the State Patrol. I deleted the name of the suspect because we generally don’t name them when they are arrested. We wait until they are charged by prosecutors.

Olympia Man Arrested for Vehicular Assault and Hit and Run

A 4-year-old boy was airlifted to Harborview Hospital yesterday with serious injuries to his face after an Olympia man lost control of his wagon striking the SUV the young boy was a passenger in. The man fled the scene.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. last night 34 year-old (name deleted)

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The fatal accident happened early this morning in Parkland. The Washington State Patrol sent out this news release.

One man dead in roll-over collision on State Route 7

Pierce Co-On 5-24-09 at 3:35 AM, State Troopers responded to a one vehicle roll-over collision on State Route 7 near State Route 512. Upon arrival Troopers observed a heavily damaged 2003 Jeep Cherokee still running on top of some cars parked in a car lot.

The Jeep was driven by 33 year-old Anthony T. McDonald of Renton. McDonald was driving northbound on SR 7 approaching SR 512 at

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Check out story from our sister paper and You Tube video footage of a state trooper nosing around the bikes.

By Jeremy Pawloski
The Olympian

A lawyer representing several Washington motorcycle groups wrote an angry letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire protesting Washington State Patrol’s recent surveillance activity at the Capitol, photographing license plates of motorcyclists who were there to advocate for issues important to them.

“I may be old school, but I always thought that the Capitol was supposed to be a sanctuary for free speech and assembly, and not an opportunity for clandestine intelligence gathering on citizens trying to be involved in the political process,” Seattle attorney Martin Fox wrote.

Fox distributed his letter to numerous Washington media outlets, along with a DVD with images of a trooper “crawling around the bushes of the Capitol to record license plate numbers of motorcycles into his tape machine,” the letter reads.

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