Senator Cracks Down on Distracted Driving While Driving on Zoom

Is this Ohio State Senator wearing a seatbelt in his office while considering a distracted driving bill?

Let's me make one thing very clear.  There's no shame in using a background during a work zoom meeting.  The background work best with consistent lighting and a solid color wall behind you.  So, using an image of your office in the background while sitting in your car will be noticeable.  The seatbelt doesn't help.

A video has gone super viral of Ohio State Senator Andrew Brenner doing just that.  He was meeting with law makers Monday morning when this whole thing went down.  In the beginning of the meeting you can see that he's sitting in his car.  Then he turns his camera off.  When the Senator's camera comes back on he has a seatbelt on and a background image of an office appears.  The background image fades in and out as he appears to be driving.  You can see a clip of that moment below.

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Outside of this moment just being a little hokey, WKYC.com explains why this video is getting so much National attention,

All of this happened as the Ohio House is considering a bill proposing stricter rules against cell phone use while driving, with a goal of cracking down on distracted driving in the state.

Senator Brenner responded to the ironic controversy by telling the Columbus Dispatch,

I wasn't distracted. I was paying attention to the driving and listening to it (the meeting.)

He also pointed out that he was wearing his seatbelt.  We know Senator.  That's actually the funniest part of the video.  You know, you wearing a seatbelt in your office.

In a completely unrelated story from WKYC a couple weeks ago, the Ohio State Police issued over 500 distracted driving citation in just one week in early April.