Tagged: driving laws

Illinois may get tougher on drivers who don't just break the speed limit but shatter it.

The state Senate voted Friday to deny the option of court supervision when drivers break the limit by certain amounts: over 25 mph on city streets and over 30 mph on highways.

A proposed compromise to expand Missouri's texting-while-driving law appears to have fallen flat in a Senate committee.

The Senate Transportation Committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill by that would prohibit all drivers - not just those 21 and younger - from texting while driving. Because similar bills have failed in the past, Democratic Sen. Robin Wright-Jones of St. Louis proposed making texting a secondary offense - meaning police would have to pull motorists over for something else before they could write a ticket for texting.

Fatalities and drunken driving arrests were up this Christmas season, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

From 6 p.m. Friday until just before midnight on Sunday, state troopers investigated 213 crashes, which included two of the three fatalities and 67 injuries. Fifty-six people were arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Last year, troopers investigated 487 crashes, including one of two fatalities and 122 injuries, and arrested 51 people for impaired driving.

This year's fatalities were: