Possible texting ticket loophole

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The texting-while-driving tickets are starting to roll in, and some Austin drivers said the rules are not clear and a $500 ticket is unfair. So far, the Austin Police Department has issued four citations throughout the city.

It has been about a month since Austin police were first able to write tickets to drivers caught using their cell phones for anything other than talking in their cars.

That means no texting, no scrolling through messages, no Web surfing, no more reading e-mails, and no handheld GPS navigating. However, one man said he had his cell phone mounted and was using the GPS on it, which he thought was legal, but he still was hit with a fine.

"It was very frustrating because I specifically went out and purchased a device so I could mount my cell phone on the front window,” said Thomas Payne, one of the four Austin residents recently ticketed under the new texting-while-driving ordinance.

Payne is constantly on the road for work and depends on the GPS on his iPhone.

"I use Google maps to get around the city to get from appointment to appointment,” said Payne.

So he bought a $30 holder thinking it would save him a $500 ticket. However, it did not.

"I was simply going through the maps to try to figure out where my next turn was," said Payne. "The next thing I knew, there was a cop behind me."

If Payne had a GPS device, not a cell phone with a GPS function on it, he would have been in the clear as long as it was permanently mounted.

"I asked him and explained I had it posted, I was using the GPS and wasn’t that allowed, and he said that was something I could take up with the judge,” said Payne.

Payne said it feels like the ordinance is unclear. But Austin police said the goal of the new ordinance is just about keeping our roads safer.

"If people are afraid they will have to pay a fine if they get caught for doing this, then that's just one way for us to deter it,” said Officer Veneza Aguinaga with the Austin Police Department.

Payne said he was trying to follow the rules and APD should have clarified a cell phone - even mounted - cannot be used for GPS before writing out the $500 tickets.

“I do want to fight it and meet with the judge and just kind of see what his feelings are,” said Payne. “I truly feel I was in the right in this situation.”