Cellular Phone Use and Texting While Driving Laws

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Cellular Phone Use and Texting While Driving Laws

4/30/2018

driving while on phone The prevalence of cellular phones, new research, and publicized crashes has started many debates related to the role cell phones play in driver distraction. This chart details state cellular phone use and texting while driving laws.

Hand-held Cell Phone Use Ban: 16 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving.
All Cell Phone ban: No state bans all cell phone use for all drivers, but 38 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use by novice or teen drivers, and 21 states and D.C. prohibit any cell phone use for school bus drivers.
Text Messaging ban: 47 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers.
- Missouri prohibits text messaging by novice or teen drivers.

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2017.

The box allows you to conduct a full text search or use the dropdown menu option to select a state.

States	Hand-held ban	All cell phone ban	Texting ban	Enforcement	Crash Data Collection
Alabama	No	Drivers age 16 and 17 who have held an intermediate license for less than 6 months.	All drivers	Primary
Alaska	No	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Arizona	No	School bus drivers; Learner's permit and provisional license holders during the first six months after licensing (effective 6/30/2018)	No	Primary: cell phone use by school bus drivers Secondary: cell phone use by young drivers (effective 6/30/2018)	Yes
Arkansas	Drivers ages 18 to 20 years of age; school and highway work zones	School bus drivers, drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary: for texting by all drivers and cell phone use by school bus drivers. Secondary: for cell phone use by young drivers, drivers in school and work zones	Yes
California	All drivers	School and transit bus drivers and drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary: hand held and texting by all drivers. Secondary: all cell phone use by young drivers.	Yes
Colorado	No	Drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Connecticut	All drivers	Learner's permit holders, drivers younger than 18, and school bus drivers	All drivers	Primary
Delaware	All drivers	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders and school bus drivers	All drivers	Primary	Yes
District of Columbia	All drivers	School bus drivers and learner's permit holders	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Florida	No	No	All drivers	Secondary	Yes
Georgia	Yes (eff. 7/1/18)	School bus drivers. Drivers younger than 18.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Hawaii	All Drivers	Drivers younger than 18	All Drivers	Primary
Idaho	No	No	All Drivers	Primary	Yes***
Illinois	All Drivers	Learner's permit holders younger than 19, drivers younger than 19, and school bus drivers	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Indiana	No	Drivers under the age of 21.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Iowa	No	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Primary: for all offenses (effective July 1, 2017).	Yes
Kansas	No	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Kentucky	No	Drivers younger than 18, School Bus Drivers.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Louisiana	No	School bus drivers, learner's permit and intermediate license holders, drivers under age 18	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Maine**	No	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Maryland	All drivers, School Bus Drivers.	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders under 18. School bus drivers.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Massachusetts	Local option	School bus drivers, passenger bus drivers, drivers younger than 18.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Michigan	Local option	Level 1 or 2 license holders.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Minnesota	No	School bus drivers, learner's permit holders, and provisional license holders during the first 12 months after licensing	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Mississippi	No	School bus drivers.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Missouri	No	No	Drivers 21 years or younger.	Primary
Montana	No	No	No	Not applicable	Yes
Nebraska	No	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders younger than 18	All drivers	Secondary	Yes
Nevada	All drivers	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes
New Hampshire	Yes	Drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary
New Jersey	All drivers	School bus drivers, and learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Primary	Yes
New Mexico	Local option	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders.	All Drivers	Primary	Yes
New York	All drivers	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes
North Carolina	No	Drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	All drivers	Primary
North Dakota	No	Drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Ohio	Local option	Drivers younger than 18.	All drivers	Primary: for drivers younger than 18. Secondary: for texting by all drivers.
Oklahoma	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders, school bus drivers and public transit drivers	School Bus Drivers and Public Transit Drivers	All Drivers.	Primary	Yes
Oregon	All drivers	Drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Pennsylvania	Local option	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Puerto Rico	All drivers		All drivers	Primary
Rhode Island	Yes	School bus drivers and drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary	Yes
South Carolina	No	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes***
South Dakota	No	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Secondary	Yes
Tennessee	Drivers in marked school zones (effective 01/01/18)	School bus drivers, and learner's permit and intermediate license holders	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Texas	Drivers in school crossing zones	Bus drivers. Drivers younger than 18	All drivers (effective 09/01/2017)	Primary	Yes
Utah	See footnote*	Drivers under the age of 18.	All drivers	Primary for texting; secondary for talking on hand-held phone	Yes
Vermont	All drivers	Drivers younger than 18	All drivers	Primary
Virgin Islands	Yes				Yes
Virginia	No	Drivers younger than 18 and school bus drivers	All drivers	Primary: for texting by all drivers. Secondary: for drivers younger than 18.	Yes
Washington	All drivers	Learner's permit and intermediate license holders.	All drivers	Primary	Yes
West Virginia	All Drivers	Drivers younger than 18 who hold either a learner's permit or an intermediate license	All drivers	Primary
Wisconsin	No	Learner's permit or intermediate license holder	All drivers	Primary
Wyoming	No	No	All drivers	Primary	Yes
Total	All drivers: 15 states and District of Columbia, Guam, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.	School Bus drivers: 21 states and District of Columbia. Teen drivers: 38 states and District of Columbia.	All Drivers: 47 states and District of Columbia, Guam, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.	Primary for all drivers texting: 43 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Secondary for all drivers texting: 4.	40 states, U.S. Virgin Islands and District of Columbia.

Source: Source Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2017.
Governor’s Highway Safety Association
.* Utah considers speaking on a cell phone, without a hands-free device, to be an offense only if a driver is also committing some other moving violation (other than speeding).
** Maine has a law that makes driving while distracted a traffic infraction. 29-A M.R.S.A. Sec. 2118.
*** Listed as a part of contributing factors

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