Phone ban takes effect for beginning drivers
Minors holding permits, new licenses are affected
A law has taken effect the prohibits new drivers younger than 18 from using any wireless devices while holding their learner’s permit and during the first six months of their provisional license. The restrictions cover beginning drivers statewide.
A bill passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey in April 2017 prohibits new drivers younger than 18 from using any wireless devices while holding their learner’s permit and during the first six months of their provisional license.
After a decade of failed attempts to enact a broader ban on texting and driving — because of logistical and ideological objections from lawmakers — the teen driving bill narrowly passed the Senate and is now in effect statewide.
The law has limited reach. New drivers between the ages of 151⁄2 and 18 will be prohibited from using cellphones while driving, unless in a “specific emergency situation” or to listen to “audible turnby-turn navigation.”
If they receive no citations for phone use, nighttime driving, or additional passengers for six months, the law no longer affects them.
The restriction falls in the same category as limitations on nighttime driving and driving additional passengers. All three are subject to secondary enforcement, meaning teen drivers must first be pulled over for another violation before an officer can cite them.
A first violation comes with a maximum fine of $75 and an extension of the six-month period by 30 days. A second violation has a maximum fine of $100 and a 60-day extension. Three or more violations warrant a fine of up to $100 and a 30-day license suspension.
Isaac Jones, 23, a Tempe resident who visited the Motor Vehicle Department in Tempe last week, said he supports the new law but thinks enforcement should depend on how the phone is used.
“I think it depends on if (teens) are being pulled over because they glance down at their phone or if they’re just staring at it,” Jones said.
AAA Arizona spokeswoman Michelle Donati said this is an important restriction and urged families to talk
with their teens about safe driving.
“Oftentimes teens are very excited to get their license and they really want to create that freedom, but they might not understand how graduated drivers licensing works or how those laws work or how they’re designed to help them,” Donati said.
“It’s really all about protecting teen drivers and giving them time to develop their skills in low-risk settings.”
Arizona is late to the game when it comes to cellphone restrictions while driving. Many say this is a good first step, but not nearly enough.
All but three states ban texting for all drivers, the only exceptions being Arizona, Montana and Missouri (the latter of which prohibits drivers younger than 21 from texting). Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., ban any cellphone use by teen drivers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some cities, like Phoenix, Tucson, and Tempe, already have regulations about phones behind the wheel, but this is the first statewide rule.
Until now, the only statewide cellphone-related driving law prohibited school bus drivers from using phones while driving.
State Sen. Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said she had been working on the bill for six years and targeted it specifically at teens to get it passed.
“We knew that we were going to get pushback on this because there had been other attempts with full-out bans on texting and they’ve never gone anywhere,” Fann said. “We thought at the very least, let’s see if we can at least try to protect the teenagers and the rest of the traveling public from them.”
But further legislation may be coming. In February, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Technology unanimously approved a proposed statewide ban on texting and driving — the 12th attempted bill of this sort.
The bill never got to a hearing on the floor, however.
Fann said she expects a full-on texting and driving ban eventually, especially since cities have continued to enact their own laws.
“At some point, we’re going to have to address it on the statewide level, because you cannot have people driving from one end of the state to the other and not knowing what the laws are from one county line or one city line to another.”
For now, the restriction applies only to beginning teen drivers.
Upon signing the bill into law, Ducey said he believed “public awareness and education campaigns” are generally more effective for driver safety than cellphone bans. For minors, though, he said he would support a broader law to ban texting and driving for all youth.
“The state already regulates a number of things when it comes to early driving by teens. And for a good reason,” Ducey wrote in his signing statement. “If we can use the early years of their driving experience as an opportunity to guide them toward safe and responsible habits, that’s a good thing.”
Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, said Ducey’s support was “a good sign for the future to possibly expand that further.”
He emphasized that given teen drivers’ inexperience, a regulation like this is vitally important.
“What I see is distracted text messaging and cellphone use — imagine that in combination with people who are speedy, who have been impaired, or to some degree, they’re driving recklessly,” Gutier said. “That’s a very horrible combination.”
Maggie Wirth of Mesa, said she talks to her two kids, ages 18 and 20, about texting and driving “all the time” and would support a broader law to ban texting for all behind the wheel.
“They say, ‘I know, Mom,’ but I see them do it. It worries me,” she said.
According to a AAA study on car accidents involving teens, people ages 16 to 19 have the highest crash rate of any drivers in the United States.
❚ 59 percent of crashes with a teenager behind the wheel involved some sort of distracting behavior in the six seconds before the accident
❚ 12 percent involved teens using cellphones
Donati said AAA hopes this new law will “generate dialogue and conversation with families about road safety and ultimately create safer roads for everyone in Arizona.”
Gutier had a message directly for teens:
“Driving is a privilege, No. 1. And No. 2, people need to drive defensively and people need to pay attention,” he said.
“That’s what this law’s all about: paying attention while driving because it’s not them as much as other people. If they’re distracted or not paying attention and other people are doing very unsafe driving, that can cause a crash.”