The College Station city council is looking to bring back an ordinance requiring drivers to keep their hands off their cell phones.

The local ordinance was repealed in September 2017 after the state adopted its own law...which bans texting but allows drivers access to their phones to change music, do GPS, and send or receive emergency texts.

Direction at the last council meeting followed comments by three speakers.

Deanna Irwin lost her daughter who was attending Blinn College in a crash caused by a distracted driver that also killed three children.

Humza Khalid said he and his wife were in a car that was struck by a distracted driver on University.

And Marci Corry of the Safe 2 Save organization brought up how some of the nine other cities in Texas enforce hands free ordinances.

The council was also given information that included survey results from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Last September, eight percent of College Station drivers and more than ten percent in Bryan were seen on their cell phones while driving. Results from 19 other cities ranged from four percent in Corpus Christi to more than 12 percent in Houston and Fort Worth.

None of the four council members who voted to repeal the original ban in September 2017 are currently in office.