Colorado lawmakers reached a late compromise Wednesday on a bill to combat distracted driving on roadways, solidifying a ban on the hand-held use of cellphones behind the wheel that won passage in the final hours of the legislative session.
Negotiators faced pressure from law enforcement officials to make sure the ban was enforceable — and from defense attorneys and some lawmakers to include limits so police couldn’t pull over practically anybody.
Transportation officials see distracted driving as a rising peril on the road. Under Senate Bill 65, drivers would be prohibited from holding their phones to make calls, check messages in traffic, scroll through news postings and social media at stoplights, or seek information on the internet — unless they use a hands-free device.
The measure, backed by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol, passed a House and Senate conference committee Wednesday morning. Each chamber’s members later approved the amended version, ensuring the bill will go to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.
The bill follows years of attempts by lawmakers to crack down on distracted driving. Current law already bans cell phone use by drivers under the age of 18.
“There’s a massive safety benefit when drivers are keeping their hands on the steering wheel,” Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and co-sponsor, said in an interview. He pointed to incidents in 2005 and 2007 when, as a regular bicycle commuter in Boston, he was hit twice by drivers who he said had been texting. “The rest of the industrialized world made this change long ago.”
The bill, which covers all electronic devices, initially would have made hand-held use by drivers a primary offense, like failure to wear a seat belt under many states’ laws. That would mean police could stop and cite violators without evidence of inattentiveness, such as swerving out of a lane.
But House lawmakers amended the bill, downgrading the offense so that police could cite violators only after they’ve been stopped for other traffic misbehavior. That change was retained in the conference committee’s compromise.
“The role of the government is to criminalize dangerous activities. … When your hands are free, you are fine,” said Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, distinguishing electronic devices from how they are used after changes were made.
After a conference committee hearing, James Karbach, legislative policy director for the Colorado Public Defender’s Office, said: “We were worried that the police could use this law to pull over just about anybody, anytime — and not just to enforce this law.”
The amendments reflect a “thoughtful compromise . ….. that decreases the likelihood that we’re going to see profiling,” Colorado Freedom Fund policy director Rebecca Wallace said. The group lobbies for criminal justice reform.
Law enforcement leaders advocated for a stronger approach and proponents pointed to the emergence of seat belt laws that drivers largely ignored — until failing to wear a seat belt became a primary offense in many states, though not Colorado. In the 1990s, a majority of states elevated seat belt laws to that level.
Dealing with distracted driving due to cellphone use is difficult “because a law enforcement officer has to witness a driver manually entering data into the phone,” Colorado State Patrol legislative liaison Mike Honn said. “A hands-free bill makes this cleaner, clearer and more enforceable. … Lives are at stake — mothers, brothers, neighbors and friends.”
In 2018, Colorado lawmakers rejected a ban on hand-held cellphone use while driving. If this bill passes, Colorado would join 27 states with bans.
Yet cellphone use by drivers is becoming more common as traffic congestion increases, with 76% of Colorado drivers reporting that they use their cellphones behind the wheel, according to a 2023 CDOT survey. That was up from 67% in 2022.
Drivers also reported that they engaged in other distracting activities, such as eating and adjusting audio entertainment systems.
Distracted driving in Colorado ranks as the third leading cause of crashes, and a CDOT analysis linked 718 traffic fatalities between 2012 and 2022 to distracted driving. Nationwide, a Cambridge Mobile Telematics analysis concluded that distracted driving had increased by 23% since 2020, causing 420,000 crashes and 1,000 fatalities.
Colorado’s existing law allows regular cellphone use by drivers 18 and older for voice calls. Texting or searching the internet is already illegal.
The new legislation would prohibit all use of cell phones for calls or any other activity — unless drivers use a voice-controlled system that requires, at most, a single key tap or swipe. It makes exceptions for drivers reporting emergencies and for first responders, utility workers during emergencies, government employees handling law enforcement and drivers who have parked their vehicles.
Penalties for violators would range from $75 for a first offense, along with 2 license suspension points, up to $250 for a third offense, along with 4 points. But a ticketed driver who can demonstrate to a court that they subsequently purchased a hands-free system could clear their record and not face penalties.
“Police officers are not going to be out there trying to play ‘Gotcha!’ but they are trying to change behavior,” Hansen said.
“This is not about punishment. It’s about having safer behavior,” he said. “You can still use talk-to-text — the same way you can make a phone call — because you wouldn’t have that device in your hands. You would just say: ‘Hey, Siri …’ ”
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