Enforcement of Pennsylvania law banning handheld cell phone use behind the wheel will begin June 6.
Dubbed Paul Miller’s Law, the ban has been in effect for the past year, though police could only issue warnings. Starting next month, drivers convicted of distracted driving will be subject to a $50 fine.
The law bans drivers from holding or pressing more than one button on a mobile device while operating a motor vehicle — including while stopped at red lights and stop signs — as well as reaching for a mobile device in such a way that the driver is “no longer in a seated driving position.”
Pennsylvania will join 32 states, including all of its neighbors, in enforcing bans on handheld cell phones while driving in most circumstances. The use of hands-free devices and screens built into vehicles remains legal.
The enforcement of the law comes after the commonwealth experienced its fourth consecutive annual decline in distracted driving-related crashes, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data released earlier this year, though fatal accidents due to distracted driving ticked up in 2025. The department attributed last year’s dip in distracted driving-related crashes in part to the new law.
A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation press release noted that distracted driving crash data “is believed to be underreported due to many drivers’ reluctance to admit to being distracted at the time of a crash.”
The legislation that became Paul Miller’s Law had been championed for over a decade by Sen. Rosemary Brown, a Monroe County Republican. She named it Paul Miller’s Law after a 21-year-old Scranton man who was killed in a 2010 car crash by a truck driver who was using a cell phone.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Brown’s legislation into law in 2024.