The grace period is over: holding a phone to your ear while driving in Louisiana will now cost you a few bucks if you are caught, as the state law prohibiting cell phone use behind the wheel will be enforced in the new year.
Louisiana State Police Trooper Shelby Mayfield said the purpose of the ban on hand-held cell phones while driving is to increase everyone’s safety.
“These are the causes of a lot of crashes on our roadways, people being distracted while they’re driving, and we’re just trying to cut down on the amount of fatal crashes and serious injury crashes that we have as a result of that,” said Mayfield.
The ban officially took effect last August, but officers initially issued warnings. That grace period ended when the calendar flipped to 2026. There had been a ban on texting while driving in place for quite some time, but Trooper Mayfield said this new law takes it one step further.
“Before, you can cite somebody from actually operating the phone, but now, even if you’re having a phone conversation that needs to be done in a hands-free manner,” Mayfield said.
During debate in the legislature, some noted that this new law would be discriminatory against those who drive older vehicles, which do not have Bluetooth built-in to allow hands-free phone conversations in which you can listen to the person you’re talking to on your car stereo speakers. Mayfield said that is no excuse.
“There’s a speaker option on your phone to where you don’t have to have the phone up to your ear holding it in your hand,” said Mayfield. “You can simply put it on speaker to make sure that you can keep both hands on the steering wheel.”
This is a secondary offense, meaning you cannot be pulled over for that offense alone. Instead, it would yield an additional fine if you are observed using a hand-held cell phone while committing a moving violation, like speeding or running a red light.