Enforcement starts for Pennsylvania’s handheld phone ban. How to avoid fines

Pennsylvania drivers caught holding their cellphones behind the wheel will now face fines under Paul Miller’s Law. Enforcement of the year-old ban begins Friday, ending a grace period during which police could only issue warnings.

FULL STORY: PA ban on phone use while driving to be enforced soon. Here’s when, what penalties to expect

Here are key takeaways:

• Starting Friday, drivers convicted of distracted driving under the law face a $50 fine. The ban applies even when stopped at red lights and stop signs.
• The law prohibits holding or pressing more than one button on a mobile device while driving, and reaching for a device in a way that takes the driver out of a seated position. Hands-free devices and built-in vehicle screens remain legal.
• Pennsylvania becomes the 33rd state to enforce a handheld phone ban, joining all of its neighbors.
• Distracted driving-related crashes in Centre County dropped below 100 last year for the first time in at least 20 years. Five county driving deaths in 2025 were attributed to distracted driving.
• Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe County, championed the legislation for more than a decade. It is named for a 21-year-old Scranton man killed in a 2010 crash by a truck driver using a cellphone. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed it into law in 2024.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.