Distracted Driving Laws by State

Posted on Jun 8th 2017

Distracted driving has been a topic of great interest over the past few years and many states have taken steps to curb it. Additionally, with the release of iOS 11, Apple has created a "distracted driving" setting.

Please see the information below and feel free to click on the link at the bottom to select for your direct state to get information on current laws.

• Hand-held Cell Phone Use: 14 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving. All are primary enforcement laws—an officer may cite a driver for using a hand-held cell phone without any other traffic offense taking place.
• All Cell Phone Use: No state bans all cell phone use for all drivers, but 38 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use by novice drivers, and 20 states and D.C. prohibit it for school bus drivers.
• Text Messaging: Washington was the first state to pass a texting ban in 2007. Currently, 47 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers. All but 4 have primary enforcement. Of the 4 states without an all driver texting ban:
  • 3 prohibit text messaging by novice drivers.
  • 1 restricts school bus drivers from texting.

Preemption Laws: Some states have preemption laws that prohibit local jurisdictions from enacting their own distracted driving bans. States with such laws include – but may not be limited to – Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Carolina.

CLICK HERE FOR STATE-BY-STATE LAWS

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A SINGLE DOCUMENT THAT OUTLINES ALL STATES