The most recent legislative session in Louisiana yielded a spate of new laws that will impact drivers in the state. Many of those new laws go into effect tomorrow, and police are encouraging drivers to be aware of these changes. State Trooper Jacob Pucheu joined WWL’s Dave Cohen to discuss what motorists in Louisiana need to be mindful of going forward.
The state legislature has made it illegal to be holding a phone while driving. Whether it be texting, dialing, or using an app, handheld devices will now be banned while in a moving vehicle. Pucheu emphasized that motorists who are using hands free navigation or calling, being lawfully parked or stopped, and those who are making a 911 emergency call will not be cited for an infraction. Pucheu also noted that using a cellphone while driving would be a “secondary infraction” meaning the driver would have to be driving recklessly or breaking another law to be cited for using a cell phone while driving.
“It goes back to keeping those distractions to a minimum while driving, which is making everyone’s insurance rates go up in the state,” Pucheu said. He emphasized that Louisiana consistently has among the highest insurance rates in the entire nation and he hopes that cracking down on distracted driving will help to save lives, lower accident rates, and ultimately help to relieve some of the financial pressure of those insurance rates.
There are already cell phone free zones that will remain in place. School zones and construction zones are already areas that prohibit the use of a handheld device and that will remain the same moving forward, Pucheu told Dave Cohen.