Published: March 31, 2022
By: Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE—Lawmakers tangled Monday over whether to create a new set of fines for holding a phone while driving even if the driver is not texting.
The “hand-held phone ban” bill would allow law enforcement to fine drivers seen with a phone in hand while behind the wheel.
“This is trying to promote safe driving,” the author of the bill, Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, said.
The fine would be lower than the $175 to $500 for a texting-and-driving citation. The new fine would range from $50 to $100 and may include a maximum of 15 hours of community service for a first offense.
The House postponed a vote on the bill as lawmakers questioned how it would be enforced and whether it would discriminate against poorer people with the most basic phones.
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