City of Smyrna approves ban on handheld devices while driving - WMBFNews.com, Myrtle Beach/Florence SC, Weather

A Georgia woman hopes that a ban on handheld devices while driving in one Cobb County city will lead to a ban statewide.

The city of Smyrna is about to become the first in the state of Georgia to ban handheld devices for drivers. The city council was split on the ordinance, but the fact that it passed means a life saving change for some.

"He made a really bad mistake and it cost him his life," said Mandi Sorohan.

Smyrna City Council made a decision to put an end to using the phone while driving in any way. That decision is having an effect on a mother seventy miles away.

"It's time for it," said Sorohan. "It was nine days before Christmas, he had just finished his first semester of college and and then he's just gone because of a text message."

Sorohan's son Caleb was killed in an accident because he was texting and driving in Morgan County. Sorhan says the ban on texting and driving is good but not enough. 

"A lot of times law enforcement officers don't want to pull people over because they don't know what they're doing and I've had plenty of them tell me that," said Sorohan.

She tells CBS46 the hope is other cities will follow Smyrna's lead and that this ban on handheld devices is a lot more enforceable. But Sorohan says that wasn't enough and she's even shared her story at a Smyrna council meeting with a goal of getting through to people. 

"We've tried to educate for all these years just hoping that educating people will make people so aware they won't do it," said Sorohan. "I told him a week before his accident if I found out he was doing it again, I would take his car away."

The ordinance goes into effect on April 2, 2018.