Holding a phone while driving is now illegal

Distracted driving causes accidents. [Vancouver Courier]

As of Jan. 1, it’s illegal to hold a cellphone while driving in Virginia. 

The penalty is a $125 fine for a first offense or using a phone in a highway work zone and $250 for additional offenses. If using headphones for talking on a phone hands-free, you can only have an earbud in one ear. 

According to a report by NBC12, Virginia State Police are going to aggressively enforce this law. Similar bans are already in effect in D.C. and Maryland.  

Previously, Virginia banned holding a phone while driving in a work zone and reading or typing an email or text while driving.

Exceptions to the cell phone ban include using a phone to report an emergency and using a phone while legally parked or stopped. 

According to Drive Smart Virginia, banning handheld phones while driving is important because: 

• Eighty percent of all crashes and 65 percent of all near-crashes involve driver inattention within three seconds of the crash.
• Texting while driving increases the crash risk by 2,300 percent, because it involves all three kinds of distraction – manual, visual, and cognitive.
• Fifteen percent of all fatal crashes were distraction-related in 2018 in Virginia. This number is likely understated as distraction can be difficult to measure in the event of a fatality.