LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — It's a heartbreaking plea from a mother who experienced an unthinkable tragedy. Mindy Schulz wants drivers to put down their cellphone. But twice now, Virginia's hands-free bill has died in the general assembly. But some lawmakers think this upcoming session will be different.
In August 2016, John Miller was driving his Jeep Cherokee when he said he didn't see Schulz and her infant son Tristan in a crosswalk near their home in Loudoun County. Miller hit Schulz and Tristan, and Tristan died from the impact. He was only five-and-a-half months old.
Schulz joined lawmakers, the NTSB and Alexandria Police Monday to plead for a ban on hand-held phones while driving.
"I wonder what I could say that would make any difference to you, wrap up how one moment destroyed a lifetime," Schulz said.
Clutching her son's orange and blue onesie, she talked that tragic day, which will haunt her forever.
"I can still feel the moment my son's stroller was ripped out of my hands," she said. "My last moment of my son alive was the moment John F. Miller was killing him."
The effort is being led by Senator Scott Surovell, a Virginia democrat. Surovell said an average text message takes a driver's attention off the road for the length of a football field.
"All I can tell you about the reasons why it has failed, the senator or handful of people who oppose it, 20 in the house and four in the Senate is that it's the government trying to govern your life and it's a slippery slope," Surovell said.
In Virginia, there's a ban on texting while driving, but the hands-free law has yet to gain any final approval. Both times, the bill has died on a conference committee.
If lawmakers approve the new ban on hand-held phones in January, it wouldn't reach the Governor's desk until February, and it won't go into effect until July.