State by State Cell Phone Driving Laws

The use of cell phones, including talking and texting has actually been banned in many states. If either you, your employees or someone you know use a cell phone while in the car you should know of the many state laws that there are that will affect how you can or if you can use your cell phone while you’re driving.

If you’re not aware and if you run a business don’t advise your employees on your state’s laws you could be liable for the legal violations if they break cell phone laws while driving either in a company car or while driving while doing company business. Before you require your employee to use a cell phone while driving you should make sure that you look at all of this as well.

Currently there is no law that completely bans cell phone use while driving but there are some states that have passed some laws that govern the use of cell phones while someone is driving. Some of the laws cover all drivers while there are others that only regulate new rivers and bus drivers.

Tickets and Cell Phone Violations

A cop can actually pull you over for no other reason than just holding your cell phone while you’re driving if they suspect you were actually using the phone illegally. There are two different ways in which you can get a ticket for violating the cell phone laws in your state:

1. Primary enforcement laws
2. Secondary enforcement laws

The primary enforcement laws are what will allow a police officer to write you a ticket as a violation for using a cell phone during driving and this is even if you have no other violations during the stop, like speeding, seatbelt, etc…

The secondary enforcement laws will permit the police officer to write you a ticket for the illegal use of a cell phone only if there was actually another violation during the stop. Say you are using your cell phone and as a result of it you ran a red light, or you were speeding while talking on your cell phone, etc…

Individual State Laws

As of May of 2008 the following jurisdictions and states have enacted state bans while driving and using a hand-held cell phone:

The only secondary enforcement state is Washington State. The rest of this list is primary enforcement states:

• California
• Connecticut
• Washington D.C.
• New Jersey
• New York
• U.S. Virgin Islands

States That Have Banned Texting While Driving

Both Washington state and New Jersey are the only states that have actually specifically banned texting while driving. Although texting is something that involves someone using their hands the other states that have the ban on hand-held cell phone use while driving pretty much encompasses itself into the ban.

The states of New Hampshire and Utah have secondary enforcement laws for any type of cell phone use that is deemed as a contributing factor for another traffic violation or as a driver distraction.

Other Cell Phone Laws by State

The following list is the states that have passed a law allowing a local jurisdiction to govern the use of cell phones while driving:

• Illinois
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New Mexico (the laws do apply statewide as well but that is only to the state vehicles)
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania

There are a total of 17 states along with the Washington D.C. which have passed laws specifically regulating cell phone use and new drivers.

There are a total of 15 states along with the District of Columbia that have passed laws prohibiting school bus drivers from any form of cell phone use at all when there are students or passengers on the bus. The only exception is in case of an emergency.

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Related posts:

1. Distracted Driving Bills on the Front of the Arizona Capital
2. Transportation Department Not Ready To Ban Hands-Free Driving Use
3. Cell Phone Bill with Text Message Ban Now Law
4. California Cell Phone Use Bill Would Hike Driver Fines
5. New York Drivers – Leave Your Phone Alone
6. National Survey Prompts the Call for Mobile Phone While Driving Ban
7. Facts About Distracted Driving
8. Distracted Driving, The NPRM Calls for a Complete Cell Phone Use Ban
9. New Website Aims To Help California Drivers Fight Cell Phone Tickets
10. 629 San Diego Drivers Ticketed By CHP for Cell Phone Use

Tags: cell phone-laws, Cell Phones

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 8:06 pm by Bryan Bradshaw and is filed under Cell Phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.