Three new highway safety measures are now or will become law on July 1.

Effective June 3, the Pickup Truck Safety Belt Law was signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue. It requires both drivers and passengers of pickup trucks to buckle-up in their vehicles except for certain farming exemptions. Citations under the new law will carry the same penalties as current safety belt violations.

In Rockmart, Police Chief Keith Sorrells has prepared a notice for officers in his department that focuses on this new rule of the road.

“I have asked our officers to write warnings to drivers of pickup trucks until Aug. 1,” he said. “That will give almost two months to get the message out. I want to be fair, but I also want people to be safe.”

Officers will also enforce two other laws that will become law July 1: Teen cell phone use while driving ban and the all-driver texting while driving ban.

Sorrells pointed out the Teen Cell Phone Driving Ban prohibits drivers under age of 18 with a Class D license from talking on cell phones and texting while driving. Penalties under this new law include a $150 fine and one point on the driver’s license. In addition, monetary fines will be doubled for teen drivers proven to have violated the law at the time of a traffic crash.

The Texting While Driving Ban applies to drivers 18 and older who possess a Class C driver’s license. Under this new law, drivers cannot write, send or read a text message, e-mail or use the Internet on any wireless device while driving. Penalties under this law also include a $150 fine and one point on the driver’s license.

Sorrells said the use of cell phones is not the only distraction drivers’ face today. He pointed out that during the past year a SUV rear-ended a school bus at a railroad crossing while reading her US postal mail (not e-mail).

“Within 10 days, we had a crash where a lady ran though a stop sign and struck a vehicle in the side while using the GPS in her car,” he said. “Another driver was talking to her child and pulled from a parking lot on Piedmont Avenue into the path of an oncoming car.”

The new laws will not only be enforced in Rockmart and Polk County but across Georgia.