KEARNEY — On a recent trip with his state trooper drivers, Gov. Jim Pillen said he watched as a vehicle ahead swerved in and out of its lane, then veered into the ditch and back onto the roadway.

So when asked Wednesday if he’d support a tougher ban on cell phone use while driving, the first-term governor said that it needs to be looked at.

“I think we do have a problem,” Pillen said at a press conference in Kearney. “I think we have to have some serious conversations.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, currently ban use of hand-held cell phones while driving.

Forty-eight states, the NCSL says, have banned text messaging while driving.

Nebraska has a ban on using a hand-held cell phone to read, write or text while driving, but it is one of only three states that makes texting while driving a secondary offense. That means that a motorist would have to be stopped for another offense to get a ticket for texting.

In nearby Iowa, for instance, a distracted driver law allows for a driver to be pulled over for using a hand-held cell phone.

Tougher distracted driving bills have been introduced in the Nebraska Legislature, but have failed to pass.

According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, there were 19 fatalities, 1,495 injuries and 3,060 property damage only crashes related to distracted driving in the state in 2019.

Nationally, 2,841 people were killed in distracted driving crashes in 2018, the DHHS said.

This story was originally published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. It is part of the national nonprofit States Newsroom. Find more at nebraskaexaminer.com.