In 2007, Washington became the first state to ban texting while driving. Nine years later, 46 states and the District of Columbia have passed bans. In 46 states, texting while driving is banned for all drivers. In 41 states plus the District of Columbia, texting while driving has primary enforcement. That is, an officer may cite a driver for texting while driving without any other traffic offense taking place. In five states (Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota) enforcement is secondary. Laws in 14 states and the District of Columbia prohibit drivers from using hand-held cell phones at all while driving. All of those laws have primary enforcement. Only four states–Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Texas–have not passed a texting ban for all drivers. Two of those states–Arizona and Montana–have no ban at all for drivers while Missouri and Texas have passed bans on texting while driving for novice drivers. According to a survey by the Governors Highway Safety Association, states have taken significant steps to curb texting while driving in recent years: text messaging bans for all drivers grew by 62 percent from 2010 to 2016 (29 states plus the District of Columbia had a ban in 2010 while 46 states plus the District of Columbia have a ban in 2016). Nearly every state (48 and the District of Columbia) collect data on distracted driving, including at least one category for distraction on police crash report forms. The two states that currently do not collect distracted crash data are Connecticut and New Hampshire. (Author/publisher)
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