New York’s Law on Cell Phones and Driving: Rules, Penalties, and Your Rights After a Crash

Quick Answer

Yes, it is illegal to hold a cell phone to talk, text, browse, take photos, or play games while driving in New York. Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c bans hand-held phone calls, and Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-d bans holding any portable electronic device to text, read, or use apps while the vehicle is in motion. A conviction carries a fine of $50 to $200 for a first offense (up to $450 for a third offense within 18 months), a surcharge of up to $93, and 5 driver violation points. Hands-free calling, a phone secured in a mount, and calls to 911 or other emergency responders are allowed. Junior and probationary drivers lose their license for 120 days on a first conviction.

Key Takeaways

• New York was the first state to ban hand-held phone calls while driving (November 1, 2001) and has banned texting and other hand-held device use since 2009.
• Two statutes apply: Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c covers holding a phone to your ear for a call, and Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-d covers holding any device to text, email, browse, view or take images, or play games.
• A first conviction costs $50 to $200 plus a surcharge of up to $93 and 5 points. Since February 16, 2026, the DMV counts points over a 24-month window, and 11 points can trigger a license suspension.
• Junior, probationary, and permit drivers face a 120-day suspension for a first phone or texting conviction and a revocation of at least one year for a second within six months.
• Taxi, Uber, Lyft, and other TLC-licensed drivers in New York City may not use any electronic device, including a Bluetooth earpiece, while operating a vehicle, and commercial drivers are covered even while stopped in traffic.
• The 2025 viral “No Touch Law” videos described a Pennsylvania statute, not a New York one. New York’s phone law itself did not change in 2025 or 2026.
• In a New York car accident case, proof that a driver was violating the cell phone law is negligence as a matter of law, and phone records, Bluetooth logs, and witness accounts are used to prove it.

More than two decades after New York became the first state in the nation to outlaw hand-held phone calls behind the wheel, the rules still confuse drivers. Is it legal to check a text at a red light? Can you hold the phone if it is on speaker? What about the navigation app on your dashboard? And if a driver who was looking at a screen hits you, what does the violation mean for your claim? This guide from Mark E. Seitelman answers those questions with the current statutes, the penalty schedule that applies in 2026, and the practical realities of how the law is enforced and used as evidence in New York City courts.

Is It Illegal to Use a Cell Phone While Driving in New York?

Yes. New York has two separate laws that together prohibit nearly every hand-held use of a phone or similar device while you drive. The first, adopted in 2001, deals with holding a phone to make or take a call. The second, adopted in 2009 and strengthened in 2011 and 2013, deals with texting, browsing, and every other hands-on use of a portable electronic device. Both are traffic infractions rather than crimes, but both carry fines, a surcharge, and 5 points on your driving record, and both can be used against a driver who causes a crash.

Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c: Hand-Held Phone Calls

Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c makes it unlawful to operate a motor vehicle on a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call while the vehicle is in motion. The statute defines “using” a phone as holding it to, or in the immediate proximity of, the user’s ear. A driver who is seen holding a phone to or near the ear while the car is moving is presumed to be on a call. That presumption can be rebutted, but in practice it means the officer does not need to prove what you were doing on the phone. Seeing it at your ear is enough to write the ticket.

The statute expressly permits hands-free calling. A hands-free mobile telephone is one with an internal feature or function, or an attachment or addition, that lets the user engage in a call without the use of either hand, even if a hand is needed to activate, deactivate, or initiate a function of the phone, which today means a Bluetooth connection to the car, a wired or wireless earpiece worn in one ear, or a phone secured in a mount and answered by voice or a single touch.

Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-d: Texting and Portable Electronic Devices

Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-d is the broader of the two laws. It prohibits operating a motor vehicle while using any portable electronic device while the vehicle is in motion. The list of covered devices is long: hand-held mobile phones, personal digital assistants, hand-held devices with mobile data access, laptop computers, pagers, broadband personal communication devices, two-way messaging devices, electronic games, portable computing devices, and any other electronic device used to input, write, send, receive, or read text.

Under this statute, “using” means holding the device while doing any of the following:

• Viewing, taking, or transmitting images, which includes taking a photo or recording video while driving
• Playing games
• Composing, sending, reading, viewing, accessing, browsing, transmitting, saving, or retrieving email, text messages, instant messages, or other electronic data
• Performing a command or request to access a web page

The law adds a second presumption: a driver who holds a portable electronic device in a conspicuous manner while operating a motor vehicle is presumed to be using it. Holding the phone at eye level, glancing down at it in your lap, or scrolling with a thumb at the top of the steering wheel all fit that description. The message never has to be sent, and the officer never has to see the screen.

Exceptions: When You Can Legally Use a Phone Behind the Wheel

Both statutes contain the same narrow exceptions. Neither law applies to a driver who uses a device for the sole purpose of communicating about an emergency with an emergency response operator, a hospital, a physician’s office or health clinic, an ambulance company or corps, a fire department, or a police department. Neither law applies to police officers, peace officers, firefighters, or operators of authorized emergency vehicles while performing their official duties. And Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c specifically exempts the use of a hands-free mobile telephone.

Two other permitted uses are often described as exceptions but actually fall outside the definitions of the offenses. A phone or navigation device secured in a mount and not held in the hand is legal because both statutes define the violation in terms of holding the device. Likewise, a factory navigation or infotainment screen built into the dashboard is not a portable electronic device at all. The moment you pick the phone up out of the mount to type an address, however, you are holding a portable electronic device to input text, and the exception disappears.

One related rule catches many drivers off guard. Vehicle and Traffic Law 375(24-a) makes it unlawful to drive while wearing more than one earphone attached to a radio, tape player, or other audio device. A single earpiece for hands-free calls is fine. Earbuds in both ears are a separate violation, even if you are not on a call.

Does the Law Apply at Red Lights and in Stopped Traffic?

This is the most common question about New York’s cell phone law, and the honest answer has two parts. For drivers of commercial motor vehicles, the statutes are explicit: the ban applies on a public highway, including while the vehicle is temporarily stationary because of traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays. A truck or bus driver who picks up a phone at a red light is in violation. The only carve-out is a vehicle stopped at the side of, or off, the highway where stopping is lawful.

For everyone else, the statutes prohibit use while the vehicle is “in motion,” and the Legislature has not amended that language to cover a passenger car stopped in traffic. That does not make checking a text at a red light safe from a ticket. Officers routinely issue cell phone summonses to drivers stopped at lights, and the driver who picks the phone up when the light is red is almost always still holding it when the car starts to roll, which is exactly the conduct the “conspicuous manner” presumption covers. A driver who wants to contest a red-light ticket on the “in motion” language must fight it in court, with the officer’s testimony on the other side. The safest reading of the law is the one the DMV gives: do not use a hand-held device while you are behind the wheel unless you have lawfully parked.

Penalties for a Cell Phone or Texting Ticket in New York

The fine schedule for both statutes is identical, and the DMV’s cell phone use and texting page adds the surcharge and point consequences that the statutes themselves do not spell out.

Five Points and the 2026 Point-System Changes

Every conviction for a violation involving a mobile phone or portable electronic device adds 5 points to your record under the New York State Driver Point System. That is more than a speeding ticket for 11 to 20 miles per hour over the limit (4 points), more than running a red light or making an unsafe lane change (3 points each), and the same as a reckless driving conviction. Two cell phone tickets in two years put a driver at 10 points, one short of the suspension review threshold.

The DMV announced updated point values that took effect on February 16, 2026. The change added points to violations that previously carried none, such as alcohol-related convictions and driving without a license; raised the points for offenses like passing a stopped school bus; and, most significantly for phone tickets, extended the period over which the DMV counts points toward a suspension from 18 months to 24 months. The DMV stated that the 5 points for phone and portable electronic device violations remain as they were. Some online articles published in 2026 claim a cell phone ticket now carries 6 points; that is not what the DMV’s regulation says. The threshold remains 11 points, now measured over 24 months instead of 18.

Separately, a driver who accumulates 6 or more points within 18 months must pay the Driver Responsibility Assessment: $100 per year for three years, plus $25 per year for each point above six. A single cell phone conviction does not trigger it, but a cell phone conviction combined with almost any other moving violation will. Points also matter to insurers, which maintain their own point systems and can raise premiums based on the conviction for as long as it stays on your record.

Junior, Probationary, and New Drivers

Since November 1, 2014, the consequences for young and new drivers have been far harsher than the fine schedule suggests. A driver who holds a Class DJ or MJ junior license, a learner permit, or a probationary license (the first six months after any new license) faces a 120-day suspension on a first conviction for a cell phone or texting violation. A second conviction within six months of the end of that suspension results in a revocation of at least one year. For a teenager who depends on driving to get to school or work, a single glance at a text can be a four-month loss of the license.

Stricter Rules for Commercial, Taxi, and Rideshare Drivers

Drivers who earn a living behind the wheel face three overlapping sets of rules, and the strictest of them applies in New York City.

State law. Under both 1225-c and 1225-d, a commercial motor vehicle driver is covered while temporarily stationary in traffic or at a light, and a phone stops being hands-free for a commercial driver as soon as dialing or answering requires pressing more than a single button. Motor carriers may not allow or require their drivers to use hand-held phones or texting devices while driving.

Federal law. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s mobile phone restrictions fact sheet explains that interstate truck and bus drivers who hold a phone to make a call, dial by pressing more than one button, or reach for a phone in a way that takes them out of a seated, belted position face civil penalties of up to $2,750 per violation, employers who allow or require the conduct face penalties of up to $11,000, and repeat violations can disqualify the driver from operating a commercial vehicle. These rules matter in a truck accident case because a carrier’s own logs and phone policies become evidence.

New York City TLC rules. Every yellow taxi, green cab, black car, livery, and app-based driver licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission is bound by 35 RCNY 80-14(g), which goes well beyond state law. A TLC driver must not use an electronic communication device or approved tablet while operating a vehicle and may use one only while the vehicle is lawfully standing or parked. The TLC’s definition of “use” covers operating any function of the device in any way and also simply having a hands-free device in or near the ear. In other words, the Bluetooth earpiece that is legal for a private motorist is a violation for an Uber, Lyft, or taxi driver in the five boroughs. The penalty is a $250 fine on a guilty plea or $350 after a hearing, 3 TLC points (4 for a third offense within 15 months), and a mandatory Distracted Driving Portable Electronic Device Course within 60 days, with a suspension for drivers who do not complete it. The exceptions are narrow: Street Hail Livery and For-Hire Vehicle drivers may make a brief dispatch-related communication with their base over an FCC-licensed two-way radio or a fixed-mounted device, fixed-mounted e-hail and dispatch devices permitted under 35 RCNY 80-22 may be used by voice or one-touch controls, and there is an affirmative defense for reporting an imminent threat to life or property to an emergency operator when the driver could not safely stop.

For passengers, these rules are significant. If you are injured in a rideshare accident or a taxicab accident and the driver was on a call through an earpiece, the driver may have been fully compliant with state law and still in violation of the TLC rule that governed the ride.

The 2025 “No Touch Law” Rumor: What Actually Changed

In June 2025, videos and posts spread across social media announcing that a new “No Touch Law” had taken effect across roughly 31 states, making it illegal even to touch a phone at a red light; some websites later recast it as a new New York law. The claim was false. The law those videos described was Pennsylvania’s Paul Miller’s Law, which took effect on June 5, 2025, and made Pennsylvania, by the governor’s count, the 29th state in the nation to ban hand-held phone use while driving. New York enacted no new cell phone statute in 2025 or 2026. Its hand-held ban has been in place since 2001 and its texting ban since 2009.

Two genuine developments are worth knowing about. First, the DMV point-system regulation described above took effect on February 16, 2026; it changed how points are counted, not what the phone law prohibits. Second, a bill in the State Senate, S1054, would amend 1225-d to add head-mounted devices, such as smart glasses, to the devices the law covers. As of this writing, that bill remains in the Senate Transportation Committee and is not law. If you see a headline announcing a sweeping new New York phone law, check it against the DMV’s own page before changing what you believe the rules are.

How Common Are Phone-Related Crashes in New York?

Distracted driving remains the most common contributing factor in all crashes in New York State, according to the April 2026 announcement from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee that launched the state’s annual enforcement campaign. Preliminary data from the University at Albany’s Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research show that in 2025 some form of driver distraction, including inattention and cell phone use, was listed as a contributing factor in 36,646 police-reported crashes in New York State, 82 of them fatal.

Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Distracted Driving in 2024 research note reports that 3,208 people were killed and an estimated 315,167 were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2024. Distraction was reported in 8 percent of fatal crashes and an estimated 13 percent of injury crashes. Cell phone use specifically was recorded in 404 fatal crashes, 14 percent of all distraction-affected fatal crashes, and that figure is widely regarded as an undercount because drivers rarely admit to phone use and officers cannot always confirm it at the scene. Distracted drivers also killed 639 pedestrians, cyclists, and other people outside vehicles in 2024, which is why pedestrian accidents feature so heavily in New York City distracted driving cases. Drivers aged 21 to 24 made up 9 percent of drivers in fatal crashes but 15 percent of the drivers distracted by cell phones, and drivers aged 25 to 34 made up 20 percent of drivers in fatal crashes but 27 percent of those distracted by phones.

Enforcement has scaled with the problem. During the statewide Operation Hang Up mobilization in April 2025, police agencies across New York issued 67,162 tickets, 7,703 of them for distracted driving, and the State Police alone wrote 4,607 distracted driving tickets during the same April 7 to 14 Operation Hang Up detail. The Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research counted more than one million cell phone tickets issued statewide in the five years from 2015 through 2019, and of the drivers ticketed in 2019, 68 percent were men and 52 percent were between the ages of 21 and 39. When this article was first published in March 2016, the firm argued that the Legislature should raise penalties to encourage safer driving. The fines and points had in fact already been increased in 2013 and 2014, and the decade since has shown that enforcement and evidence, not fine amounts alone, are what change behavior on the road.

How a Cell Phone Violation Affects a New York Car Accident Claim

For an injured person, the most important consequence of New York’s cell phone law is not the ticket. It is what the violation does to the question of fault in a lawsuit.

Negligence as a Matter of Law

New York’s Court of Appeals held more than a century ago, in Martin v. Herzog (1920), that the unexcused violation of a statute enacted to protect others on the road is negligence in itself, not merely evidence of negligence. Vehicle and Traffic Law 1225-c and 1225-d are exactly that kind of statute. When an injured plaintiff proves that the other driver was holding a phone to talk, text, or scroll at the moment of the crash, the driver’s negligence is established as a matter of law. The plaintiff still has to show that the negligence caused the collision and the injuries, but the argument that a moment’s glance at a screen was reasonable is off the table.

Proving the Driver Was on the Phone

Drivers rarely admit phone use at the scene, so distracted driving cases are built on records. A New York car accident lawyer will typically pursue several sources of proof:

• The police crash report and any cell phone summons issued to the other driver. A ticket is not a conviction, but a guilty plea to the summons is an admission that can be used in the civil case.
• The driver’s cell phone carrier records, obtained by subpoena or court order during discovery, showing the timestamps of calls, texts, and data sessions around the moment of impact. Carriers keep detailed records for limited periods, so this request must be made early.
• Bluetooth and infotainment logs from the vehicle, which show whether a call was routed through the car’s hands-free system or taken on the handset. This matters because a hands-free call appears in the carrier log exactly like a hand-held one.
• Event data recorder (“black box”) information showing speed, braking, and steering input in the seconds before the crash, which often reveals the absence of any braking that a watching driver would have made.
• Dashcam, traffic camera, MTA bus camera, and storefront surveillance footage, and the accounts of witnesses who saw the phone in the driver’s hand.
• App activity logs from rideshare, delivery, and social media platforms, and the driver’s own sworn deposition testimony.

Your Own Phone Use and the 2026 Comparative Negligence Change

The law works in both directions. If the injured person was also using a phone, the defense will argue comparative negligence in New York under CPLR 1411. For decades, New York applied pure comparative negligence, reducing an award by the plaintiff’s share of fault no matter how large. The 2026 state budget changed that rule for motor vehicle cases. Under new CPLR 1411(b), in a personal injury action subject to Article 51 of the Insurance Law (the no-fault law that governs car accident claims), a plaintiff whose culpable conduct is greater than that of the person against whom recovery is sought, or greater than the combined culpable conduct of the persons against whom recovery is sought, recovers nothing. A plaintiff found 50 percent at fault still recovers half; a plaintiff found 51 percent at fault recovers nothing. In car accident claims in New York City, that makes the question of whose phone was in whose hand more consequential than it has ever been.

No-Fault Benefits, the Serious Injury Threshold, and the New Damages Cap

New York’s no-fault system pays an injured person’s medical bills and lost earnings up to $50,000 in basic economic loss through their own auto policy, regardless of who was at fault and regardless of anyone’s phone use. Understanding who pays medical bills after a car accident in New York is the first step in any claim. To sue the distracted driver for pain and suffering, the injured person must have a “serious injury” as defined in Insurance Law 5102(d), such as a fracture, significant disfigurement, or a permanent or significant limitation of use of a body part. The 2026 budget also added Insurance Law 5104(d), which caps non-economic damages at $100,000, but only for an at-fault plaintiff who is not already barred under CPLR 1411(b) and was driving an uninsured vehicle that was required to be insured (a coverage lapse of less than 30 days does not count), was convicted of driving while intoxicated or impaired, or was convicted of a felony they were committing or fleeing from at the time of the crash. It does not limit the recovery of an ordinary injured driver, passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist hit by a distracted driver.

Deadlines

The statute of limitations on personal injury claims in New York is three years from the date of the crash under CPLR 214(5). If the distracted driver was operating a city vehicle or an MTA bus, a notice of claim must be filed within 90 days under General Municipal Law 50-e, and the lawsuit itself must generally be started within one year and 90 days. Phone records disappear far faster than either deadline, which is why the evidence-gathering steps below should start within days of the crash.

What to Do If a Distracted Driver Hit You

1. Call 911 and report the crash. Tell the responding officer, calmly and specifically, if you saw the other driver holding or looking at a phone. That observation belongs in the crash report.
2. Get medical care the same day, even for pain that seems minor. Under no-fault, your medical bills are covered, and the medical record ties the injury to the crash.
3. Photograph the vehicles, the intersection, and the other driver’s phone if it is visible, and collect the names and numbers of every witness, especially anyone who saw the driver’s hands.
4. Note whether the other vehicle was a taxi, rideshare, delivery van, truck, or bus. Commercial, TLC, and municipal defendants bring additional rules, additional insurance, and shorter deadlines.
5. File your no-fault application (form NF-2) with the appropriate insurer within 30 days.
6. Stay off social media about the crash and your recovery. Insurers and defense lawyers review public posts.
7. Speak to a personal injury lawyer promptly so that a preservation letter and subpoena for the other driver’s phone records can go out before the carrier’s retention period runs. For more on the claims process, see our guide to distracted driving and your phone in New York.

How New York’s Cell Phone Law Has Changed Since 2001

Frequently Asked Questions About New York’s Cell Phone Driving Law

Can I use my phone at a red light in New York?

Commercial drivers cannot; the statutes cover them while temporarily stopped in traffic or at a signal. For other drivers, the statutes speak of a vehicle “in motion,” but officers issue tickets at red lights and the presumption that a driver conspicuously holding a device is using it applies the moment the car moves. Treat a red light as no different from moving traffic.

Is it legal to talk on speakerphone while driving in New York?

Only if the phone is not in your hand. Speakerphone through a mount or the car’s audio system is hands-free. Holding the phone in front of you on speaker invites a stop, and touching the screen to dial or hang up while moving violates 1225-d.

Can I use Google Maps or Waze while driving in New York?

Yes, if the phone sits in a mount and you interact with it by voice or set the route before you start driving. Picking the phone up to type an address or scroll the map while the car is moving is a violation.

How many points is a cell phone ticket in New York in 2026?

Five. The DMV’s February 16, 2026 point-system update did not change the value for phone or portable electronic device violations, although it extended the look-back period for suspensions from 18 months to 24 months.

Does a cell phone ticket raise your insurance in New York?

Usually. Insurers use their own point systems and can increase premiums based on any conviction on your record. A DMV-approved Point and Insurance Reduction Program course reduces the base rate of your auto insurance premiums by 10 percent for three years and subtracts up to 4 points for suspension purposes, but it does not remove the conviction from your record.

What happens if a junior driver gets a cell phone ticket?

A first conviction suspends a junior license, learner permit, or probationary license for 120 days. A second conviction within six months of the license being restored results in a revocation of at least one year.

Can Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers use hands-free phones in New York City?

No. TLC rule 35 RCNY 80-14(g) bars TLC-licensed drivers from using any electronic communication device while operating a vehicle, and the TLC defines “use” to include having a hands-free device in or near the ear. Devices may be used only while the vehicle is lawfully standing or parked, with a narrow exception for mounted dispatch equipment.

Can a lawyer get the other driver’s phone records after a crash?

Yes. Phone records are routinely obtained through a subpoena or court order in discovery once a lawsuit is filed, and a preservation letter can be sent to the driver and carrier before that. Because a hands-free call looks the same as a hand-held one in the carrier’s log, lawyers pair the records with vehicle Bluetooth data, witness testimony, and the driver’s deposition.

Did New York pass a “No Touch Law” in 2025?

No. The viral videos described Pennsylvania’s Paul Miller’s Law, effective June 5, 2025. New York’s hand-held phone ban dates to 2001 and its texting ban to 2009, and neither statute was amended in 2025 or 2026.

Talk to a New York Car Accident Lawyer About a Distracted Driving Crash

New York’s cell phone law gives injured people a powerful tool: when the driver who hit you was holding a phone, the law itself says that driver was negligent. Turning that principle into a recovery requires moving quickly to preserve phone records, vehicle data, and witness accounts, and it requires understanding how the 2026 changes to comparative negligence and damages affect your case.

Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices has represented injured New Yorkers in car, truck, taxi, rideshare, pedestrian, and bicycle accident cases for more than four decades, with offices in the Financial District, the Lower East Side, and the Upper East Side serving all five boroughs. If you or a family member was hurt by a driver who was texting, talking, or looking at a screen, contact us for a free consultation. We will explain your rights under New York’s cell phone law and the no-fault system, and we will begin securing the evidence that proves what the other driver was doing behind the wheel.