SC has passed a new distracted driving/ hands-free cell phone law, called the “South Carolina Hands Free and Distracted Driving Act,” which will ban most cellphone use while driving and add “distracted driving” to SC’s point system.
Below, we will cover the basics that you need to know about SC’s new cellphone ban, including:
- What types of cellphone use are prohibited,
- What types of cellphone use are permitted, and
- The penalties for using a cellphone while driving in SC.
SC Hands Free and Distracted Driving Act
SC’s new hands-free cellphone law, which goes into effect September 1st, 2025, will prohibit most cellphone use while driving, unlike SC’s previous law, which only banned texting while driving.
What is prohibited under the new distracted driving law, and what are the exceptions?
The New Cellphone Ban Applies to More Than Just Cellphones
The new law applies to “mobile electronic devices,” which covers more than just cell phones. The law will apply to:
- Cellular telephones,
- Portable computers,
- GPS receivers,
- Electronic games, or
- or “any substantially similar stand-alone electronic device used to communicate, display, or record digital content.”
What is not included? The law expressly excludes:
- Citizens band radios,
- Amateur radios,
- Ham radios,
- Commercial two-way radios or the equivalent,
- Subscription-based emergency communication devices, or
- Prescribed medical devices.
What’s Prohibited Under SC’s New Hands-Free Cellphone Law?
The law prohibits:
- Holding (or supporting) with any part of the body a mobile electronic device while operating a motor vehicle on a public highway,
- Reading, writing, or sending any text, including text messages, email, application information, or website information on a mobile electronic device, or
- “Watching motion,” including videos, movies, games, or video calls, on a mobile electronic device.
What’s Allowed Under SC’s New Hands-Free Cellphone Law?
Exceptions to the cellphone ban include when the motor vehicle operator is:
- Lawfully parked or stopped,
- Using voice-to-text and not holding the cellphone,
- Reporting an emergency, accident, or safety hazard to a public safety official,
- “[T]ransmitting or receiving data as part of a digital dispatch system while performing occupational duties or while conducting network performance testing or testing required by the Federal Communications Commission,”
- A first responder performing their official duties, or
- Using a mobile electronic device to navigate, listen, obtain traffic or road information, initiate a call, end a call, or unlock the phone if the user doesn’t have to type and is not holding the cellphone or supporting it with any part of their body.
Using a Bluetooth device like AirPods to make calls, talk on the phone, or send text messages is okay if the person isn’t holding the phone or typing.
Why Did SC Pass a Law Prohibiting Cell-Phone Use?
Why do we have a cellphone ban while driving in SC now?
First, legislators and victims’ advocates believe that it will save lives by reducing the number of car wrecks caused by distracted driving.
Second, and more importantly, the US Department of Transportation sent a letter to the SC Governor’s Office and the State Department of Motor Vehicles threatening to cut South Carolina’s federal highway funding if SC doesn’t pass a cellphone ban.
Put a law in place by July 2025, it said, or the federal government will start docking 4% of funding it sends to the state for road construction. The penalty would go up to 8% every year after that until the law is changed.
Ironically, the State of SC used similar extortion to force SC schools to implement cell phone bans in classrooms despite parents’ concerns about safety.
What are the Penalties for Using a Cell Phone While Driving in SC?
During the first 180 days after the law becomes effective (after September 1st, 2025), police can only issue warnings for violations of the distracted driving law.
After that, the penalties include:
- One hundred dollars for a first offense, and
- Two hundred dollars and two points on a person’s driving record for a second or greater offense.
Only convictions within the past three years count as prior offenses.
Law enforcement is expressly prohibited from arresting a person solely for a violation of the distracted driving law, unless the arrest is based on a bench warrant for failure to appear or failure to pay a court-ordered fine.
Law enforcement is also prohibited from:
- Stopping a person for a violation of the distracted driving law unless they had a clear and unobstructed view of the person,
- Seizing, searching, or viewing a person’s mobile electronic device based on a distracted driving violation, or
- Searching or requesting to search a vehicle based solely on a distracted driving violation.
That doesn’t mean police won’t use the law to their advantage, however.
A stop based on a “clear and unobstructed view” of the motorist allegedly using their cellphone will become a search based on the officer’s statement that he or she smelled marijuana. Or it will become field sobriety tests based on the officer’s statement that he or she smelled alcohol…
Traffic Ticket Lawyers in Columbia, Lexington, and Myrtle Beach, SC
The Myrtle Beach and Columbia, SC, traffic ticket lawyers at the Thompson & Hiller Defense Firm focus exclusively on criminal defense cases in SC. We have obtained dismissals, pre-trial diversion resulting in dismissals, or acquittals following trial in hundreds of criminal cases, and we have a record of proven results.
If you have been charged with a crime in SC or if you think you may be under investigation, call us now at 843-444-6122 or contact us through our website for a free initial consultation to find out if we can help.
