Austin

Texting and Driving Ban Dies in Texas Senate

There will not be a texting and driving ban this legislative session. A bill that would have outlawed texting and driving statewide never made it for a vote in the Texas Senate.

The bill passed in the House but did not have the votes in the Senate.

It's devastating news to Jennifer Zamora-Jamison, who lost her husband in 2007.

He fought in Iraq but came home and was killed by a distracted driver. Their daughter, Maxine, was in the car, but survived.

"Nobody should have to lose their loved ones," said Zamora-Jamison.

She fought back tears when NBC 5 spoke to her Thursday. She has spent the past seven years going back and forth to Austin, pleading with lawmakers to pass this measure.

This session, it was even harder. Maxine had been making the trip to Austin with her mother, but Maxine took her own life this past October, never getting over the loss of her father.

"I just wish I could have gone to her grave and said, 'We did it this time. We did it baby,' but we didn't,'" said Zamora-Jamison.

In 2011, a similar bill made it to the governor's desk, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Rick Perry. In 2013, a proposed text and driving ban didn't make it to the governor.

This round, in the end, the Senate was one vote shy of passing it. Lawmakers have said in the past it infringed on personal liberties.

Zamora-Jamison said she will continue to fight for a bill, and has a message for the senators who did not want to vote for it.

"In the next two years when we meet again in the next session, how many more lives are you going to have to answer for? Really it is on them," said Zamora-Jamison.

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