{"id":292670721,"date":"2014-04-11T09:25:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T09:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=292670721"},"modified":"2014-04-11T09:25:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T09:25:21","slug":"maryland-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-penalties-for-drivers-using-cellphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=292670721","title":{"rendered":"Maryland lawmakers vote to increase penalties for drivers using cellphones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jenna Johnson, Washington Post<\/p>\n<p>The Maryland General Assembly approved legislation Monday that will stiffen penalties for drivers who cause fatal or serious crashes while talking on a cellphone or texting. The legislation now goes to the governor to be signed.<\/p>\n<p>The Maryland House of Delegates and Senate had passed different versions of the legislation, but in a compromise reached on the last day of the session, lawmakers agreed to these conditions: The law would apply to drivers using a cellphone in a variety of ways, not just texting. Those found guilty would face up to one year in jail and a fine of as much as $5,000. And prosecutors could charge drivers with this law in addition to other laws.<br \/>\n&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/maryland-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-penalties-for-drivers-using-cellphones\/2014\/04\/07\/188b8470-be9b-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/maryland-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-penalties-for-drivers-using-cellphones\/2014\/04\/07\/188b8470-be9b-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jenna Johnson, Washington Post The Maryland General Assembly approved legislation Monday that will stiffen penalties for drivers who cause fatal or serious crashes while talking on a cellphone or texting. The legislation now goes to the governor to be signed. The Maryland House of Delegates and Senate had passed different versions of the legislation, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=292670721\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Maryland lawmakers vote to increase penalties for drivers using cellphones&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292670721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bike-laws"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292670721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292670721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292670721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292670721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292670721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292670721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}