Texting and distracted driving laws in the District of Columbia

Getting hit by a driver who was looking at a phone is one of the most common and most preventable crashes on District streets. If that happened to you, DC law gives you specific things to work with: what the other driver was legally required to do, how a citation supports your claim, and some deadlines that are shorter here than in most states.

Here is what actually applies in the District of Columbia, with the statute sections so you can check each point yourself.

What DC law bans behind the wheel

The District runs one of the stricter handheld phone laws in the country. Under D.C. Code § 50-1731.04, a driver may not use a mobile telephone or other personal wireless communications device without a hands-free accessory, and may not hold, or attempt to hold, the device at all while operating a vehicle.¹ Both parts matter. You cannot have the phone in your hand, and even hands-free use is limited to a headset or a mounted, voice-operated setup.

The same section bars wearing headphones that cover both ears, or earbuds in both ears, while driving, with an exception for drivers who are hearing impaired.¹ The narrow carve-outs are for genuine emergency calls, law enforcement and certain officials on duty, the act of starting or ending a call, and use while the vehicle is legally stopped and out of traffic.¹

There is also a broader offense. D.C. Code § 50-1731.03 prohibits "distracted driving," which it defines as inattention that causes the unsafe operation of the vehicle, whether the driver was reading, writing, grooming, dealing with a pet or unsecured cargo, using personal communications technology, or doing anything else that pulls attention off the road.² A driver can be at fault for distraction under this section even without a phone in hand.

Texting has no way out

Here is the DC-specific wrinkle that matters most. A violation of the handheld statute carries a $100 fine.³ For a first offense, the District will suspend that fine if the driver, after being cited but before the fine is imposed, shows proof of buying a hands-free accessory.³ It sounds forgiving. But the statute is explicit that this break "shall not apply to violations related to texting."³ Read a text, send a text, or type into a device, and the fine stands with no first-offense forgiveness.

These are primary offenses. An officer can stop a driver for the phone violation alone, and it is processed and adjudicated as a moving violation under the District traffic code.³ That last point matters for a crash claim, because a moving violation is the kind of citation that carries weight with an insurer weighing fault.

For scale, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 3,275 people killed in distraction-affected crashes nationwide in 2023, about 8% of all traffic deaths that year.⁴ The District is dense and pedestrian heavy. NHTSA's 2023 state data shows the District had the highest share of traffic deaths who were pedestrians of any state, 32%, nearly double the national rate.⁵ A driver glancing at a screen in that setting has almost no margin.

How a distracted-driving crash affects your DC claim

DC follows contributory negligence, and it is the strict, pure version. Under the rule the D.C. Court of Appeals applied in Wingfield v. Peoples Drug Store, if you are found even 1% at fault for the crash, you can be barred from recovering anything in an ordinary driver-versus-driver case.⁶ This is one of only a few jurisdictions left that still works this way, and it is why proving the other driver's distraction cleanly is so important here. Evidence that the at-fault driver was holding or texting on a phone, which is itself illegal under § 50-1731.04, helps establish their negligence and undercuts any attempt to pin fault on you.¹

There is a meaningful exception. Under D.C. Code § 50-2204.52, pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users are not held to pure contributory negligence. They can recover unless their own share of fault is greater than the combined fault of all the drivers involved.⁷ Given how many District crashes involve people on foot or on bikes, that carve-out changes a lot of cases.

Watch the deadlines, because DC has a short one that surprises people. If you elect no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) benefits under your own policy, you generally have to make that election in writing within 60 days of the crash.⁸ PIP in the District is optional, not mandatory: insurers must offer it, and you can reject it in writing.⁸ Choosing PIP also limits your right to sue the other driver unless your injuries or costs cross a statutory threshold, so it is a real decision, not a formality.⁸

The window to file the lawsuit itself is longer. The statute of limitations for a personal injury claim in the District is three years,⁹ and the same three-year period applies to vehicle and other property-damage claims.⁹ One trap: if your claim is against the District government itself, for example a crash involving a District vehicle or a dangerous road condition, you must give written notice to the Mayor within six months of the injury, separate from and much sooner than the three-year filing deadline.¹⁰

If you need the official police record of the crash, the Metropolitan Police Department handles it on a PD-10 accident report; you can request your District of Columbia crash report and read how that process works there. If the collision totaled or seriously damaged your car, the loss in resale value is its own separate claim, covered at diminished value in the District of Columbia.

Insurance minimums and a reform on the Mayor's desk

Every DC driver must carry at least 25/50/10 liability coverage: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury, plus $10,000 for property damage.¹¹ Those minimums have not moved since 1986. In 2026 the DC Council passed the Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (B26-0057) by a 12 to 1 vote and sent it to the Mayor; it would raise the bodily-injury minimums to 50/100 and add underinsured-motorist coverage.¹² As of this writing it had not taken effect, so the 25/50/10 floor still governs, and low limits are a common problem when a distracted driver causes serious injuries.

If your injuries are significant, or an insurer is already leaning on the contributory-negligence rule to deny you, it is worth talking to a lawyer who handles these claims in the District. You can find a car accident attorney through the directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. D.C. Code § 50-1731.04, Restricted use of mobile telephone and other electronic devices. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-1731.04

2. D.C. Code § 50-1731.03, Distracted driving prohibited. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-1731.03

3. D.C. Code § 50-1731.06, Enforcement; fines and penalties. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-1731.06

4. NHTSA, Research Note: Distracted Driving in 2023 (DOT HS 813 703). https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813703

5. NHTSA, State Traffic Data: 2023 Data (DOT HS 813 743). https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813743

6. Wingfield v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc., 379 A.2d 685 (D.C. 1977). https://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/1977/11243-3.html

7. D.C. Code § 50-2204.52, Contributory negligence limitation for vulnerable users. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-2204.52

8. D.C. Code §§ 31-2404 and 31-2405, Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act (PIP benefits; election deadline and lawsuit threshold). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2405

9. D.C. Code § 12-301, Limitation of time for bringing actions (three years for personal injury and for injury to personal property). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-301

10. D.C. Code § 12-309, Notice of injury required before suing the District of Columbia. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-309

11. DC DMV, Vehicle Insurance requirements. https://dmv.dc.gov/service/vehicle-insurance

12. DC Council Bill B26-0057, Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (bill history and status). https://legiscan.com/DC/bill/B26-0057/2025