In this state, you are no longer allowed to touch your phone, even when at red lights. In a world where the cellphone has become a staple to conduct everyday life, it has become almost impossible to leave your home or attend your place of work without it. However, this has become a problem on the roads, where drivers are putting themselves increasingly at risk and conducting reckless driving habits by using their phones while driving. One state now joins 30 others where using phones in their entirety while driving is now illegal.
Reckless driving increases driving fatality risk
Most adults spend the majority of their time commuting. Whether it is driving to and from work, collecting children from school, or doing everyday tasks, private commutes in passenger vehicles are often unavoidable, especially if you live in a city where public transportation options are limited or unreliable. As such, if you are a regular commuter in a private vehicle, you may find yourself stuck in traffic during peak rush hours.
When in a traffic jam, it is tempting to reach for your phone to entertain yourself. However, phone usage while driving is incredibly dangerous. According to the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), taking your eyes off the road to answer a text for five seconds is the equivalent as if you drove at 55mph the length of a football field with your eyes closed.
In 2023, the NHTSA reported that over 3,000 lives were claimed on the road due to distracted driving. To address this, thirty states have implemented ‘no touch’ laws, whereby it is illegal to touch your phone when driving, even if you are using it for navigation assistance.
This state enacts a ‘no touch’ law even at red lights
Pennsylvania is set to become the 31st state that ban cellphone usage on the road. Paul Miller’s Law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania describes how road users will no longer be allowed to touch their phones at all while driving, even if they are stopped at a red light. The new law has a one-year warning period, where law enforcement will only be giving out warnings if you are caught holding your phone while driving before fines begin to be issued from June 6, 2026.
Fines will start at $50 from next year if you are caught breaking the law. However, there is an exception to the law. If you need to call emergency services like the police or an ambulance while driving, you will not be charged with a fine if you happen to be caught driving while on the phone with these providers.
How to legally use navigation assistance
If you are concerned about how the law will affect how you use navigation assistance, there are a variety of ways you can still use GPS without touching your phone:
- Mount your phone on your dashboard to display navigation assistance
- Connect your phone to your vehicle’s smart display and follow directions from there
- If you have a passenger in your vehicle, have them describe the directions you must take
While the law may be an annoyance to many road users, it is important to remember that it is intended to reduce distracted driving and ensure the safety of all road users, including your own. Pennsylvania citizens should also be aware that a $50 fine for distracted driving is on the lighter side, with some states having fines as high as $2,500 as well as jail time. Additionally, ensuring that you are not dependent on your phone is a good habit to get into, and putting it away while driving may be a good place to start.
