New California Law Cracks Down On Mobile Phone Usage While Driving

In case it wasn’t already pretty obvious, driving while using your phone is a huge no-no, and we’re not sure if there are places in the world where it is actually legal or considered OK to do so. However over in California, Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into power a new law that further restricts mobile phone usage by drivers.

Like we said, driving while using your phones is illegal and frowned upon, and given that our phones these days are much more capable than they were from a few years ago, it has only become more distracting (like crashing a car while playing Pokemon GO), and the new law basically expands the previous law that was passed in 2006.

It has been broadened to now include other distracting activities that drivers might do on their phones, such as switching songs, navigating a map, streaming videos, and so on (these are just examples we thought up, and aren’t specific to the law). Or to be more specific, the law states that drivers are now forbidden from “holding and operating” their devices while driving for any reason.

However there is some leeway, which is that as long as your phone is not in your hand, like mounted on your dashboard or windshield, and that the function only involves “the motion of a single swipe or tap of the driver’s finger,” then it is ok. Basically holding your phone while using Waze is illegal, but if you mount it then it’s fine. The new law will be going into effect come 1st January, 2017, and the first infraction is punishable with a $20 fine, and will rise to $50 for subsequent offenses.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Legal