Bans on hand-held phone conversations while driving are widespread in other countries and are becoming more common in the U.S. In 2001, New York became the first state to ban hand-held phone conversations by all drivers. Now 24 states and the District of Columbia have similar laws.
Texting is banned for all drivers in 48 states and the District of Columbia.
Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have phone use bans specifically targeting young drivers.
Cellphone use laws by state in detail
IIHS has found that all-driver bans on hand-held phone conversations can have large and lasting effects on phone use (McCartt et al., 2010; Braitman & McCartt, 2010).
Phone bans specifically targeting young drivers seem to have less effect (Foss et al., 2009; Goodwin et al., 2012).
There is scant information on drivers' compliance with texting bans. A 2009 IIHS survey of drivers found that among 18-24 year-olds, 45 percent reported texting while driving in states that bar the practice, just shy of the 48 percent of drivers who reported texting in states without bans (Braitman & McCartt, 2010). Among drivers ages 25-29, 40 percent reported texting in states with bans, compared with 55 percent in states without bans.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has conducted high-visibility enforcement campaigns in Hartford, Conn., Syracuse, N.Y., the Sacramento Valley Region in California, and in the state of Delaware as a way to increase compliance with cellphone and texting bans. After programs of publicized, high-intensity enforcement of hand-held cellphone and texting bans were implemented, the number of drivers observed holding a phone to their ear declined (Cosgrove et al., 2011; Schick et al., 2014). Observed manipulation of hand-held phones (e.g., dialing, texting) decreased significantly in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., following the enforcement initiative and did not decrease in the comparison communities.
Some studies have found that bans on hand-held phone use have led to reductions in crashes, but the evidence is not conclusive.
Early analyses by HLDI found that collision claims either didn’t change or went up with hand-held phone bans (Trempel et al., 2011) and texting bans (HLDI, 2010).
IIHS later reviewed 11 studies of the effects of all-driver hand-held phone bans and texting bans on crashes, including the two HLDI studies, and found the results were mixed (McCartt et al., 2014). Many of these early studies were conducted before smart phones became ubiquitous.
More recently, a number of studies have shown that fatal crashes have fallen in states with bans on hand-held phone use (Flaherty et al., 2020; French & Gumus, 2018; Rocco & Sampaio, 2016; Rudisill et al., 2018). However, these studies had methodological limitations and large variation in estimated effects.
IIHS evaluated the relationship between rear-end crash rates and comprehensive cellphone bans in California, Oregon and Washington that prohibit practically all hand-held phone use. Rear-end crash rates decreased significantly in Oregon and Washington after they strengthened their hand-held phone bans, but not in California (Reagan et al., 2022).