Charleston County Tops List for Hands-Free Law Citations

Charleston County, South Carolina, has emerged as the top county for distracted driving citations under the state's new Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act, with 470 citations issued in the first 30 days of full enforcement. The law, which reached full enforcement on February 28, 2026, prohibits drivers from holding or supporting a phone with any part of their body while the vehicle is moving. This broad standard replaces the earlier texting-only rule and applies to all drivers in South Carolina. According to data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and local coverage of the rollout, the enforcement is now colliding with peak summer travel traffic across the peninsula and Mount Pleasant, raising the stakes for drivers and accident victims alike.

The law took effect on September 1, 2025, with a six-month warning period. Since late February, officers can issue tickets instead of warnings. A first offense carries a $100 fine, and a second offense within three years brings a $200 fine and two points on the driver's record. Under Section 56-5-3890, drivers may no longer hold or support a phone with any part of the body while the vehicle is moving, a standard far broader than the state's earlier texting-only rule. The Charleston personal injury lawyers at Woron and Dhillon, LLC emphasize that these citations are changing how fault is proven after a crash across the Lowcountry.

When a driver violates the hands-free law and causes a wreck, that violation can serve as evidence of negligence under South Carolina's modified comparative negligence standard (S.C. Code Section 15-38-15). A distracted driving citation can cut through the ambiguity that insurers rely on to shift blame onto the injured party. Brett Woron, a partner at Woron and Dhillon, LLC, notes that a ticket makes the conversation with the insurance company very different, as documentation that a driver was on a phone makes it much harder to argue the crash was unavoidable. Other critical evidence includes phone records aligned with the moment of impact, a police report noting handheld device use, and witnesses who saw the driver looking down.