On November 9, 2011, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed Senate Bill 314 into law, which will ban text messaging while driving. The new law goes into effect in March 2012. The ban is subject to primary enforcement, which allows police officers to detain drivers solely on the basis of texting while driving. Offenders will incur a fine of $50, which will double in school and construction zones.

While pending in the State Legislature, the House of Representatives removed language from the bill that would have also banned all handheld cell phone use while driving. In addition, the statute provides an exception for receiving a citation if a person was attempting to dial a telephone number or locate an entry in a contact list, in order to make a voice call.

Although Pennsylvania law does not currently ban the use of hand-held cell phone use for voice calls, several prominent members of the Pennsylvania House have recently indicated that they intend to push for a state-wide ban on all handheld cell phone use in early 2012. Drivers of commercial vehicles have been prohibited from texting while driving since October 2010 when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations were amended. Penalties to Commercial Motor Vehicle drivers can include disqualification from driving.

What It Means to You

The Pennsylvania text messaging prohibition statute does not address whether a violation of the ban constitutes negligence per se or “negligence as a matter of law.” This distinction is relevant since a designation would entitle a plaintiff to a jury instruction that the action of a defendant found guilty of texting while driving would constitute negligence in and of itself. Other states, including Texas, have statutory provisions regarding violations of a motor vehicle code that constitute negligence per se. It remains to be determined whether the Pennsylvania Legislature will consider similar statutory language as it addresses a state-wide handheld device ban in 2012.

Be sure to check back for the next edition of C&W Journal, which will update how the Pennsylvania Legislature is addressing this issue.

Current prohibitions on handheld cell phone use in Pennsylvania include:

• Text messaging while driving (effective March 2012)
• Several cities and municipalities throughout the Commonwealth have imposed limitations on cell phone use while driving, namely Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Those bans are set to expire in March 2012. There remains no state-wide ban on handheld cell phone use while driving.