Texting and distracted driving laws in Georgia

If the driver who hit you was looking at a phone, Georgia law is specific about what they were and weren't allowed to do behind the wheel. Since July 1, 2018, the state has banned drivers from holding a phone at all, which reaches further than a plain texting ban. Knowing which rule the other driver broke can shape your claim.

What the Hands-Free Georgia Act actually bans

The Hands-Free Georgia Act, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-241, sets out four things a driver may not do while operating a vehicle. You cannot physically hold or support a wireless telecommunications device or a stand-alone electronic device with any part of your body. You cannot write, send, or read a text-based communication, which the statute defines to include text messages, email, instant messages, and internet data. You cannot watch a video or movie, with navigation displays being the exception. And you cannot record or broadcast a video.¹

The "support with any part of your body" language is the part people miss. Wedging a phone against your shoulder or between your knees counts, even if you never type. The ban applies to every driver, regardless of age or license type.² It's a primary offense, so an officer can stop and cite a driver for the phone alone, without any other traffic violation.²

What you can still do, and the four exceptions

Hands-free use is fine. You can talk through an earpiece, a watch worn on the wrist, a mounted holder, or the car's Bluetooth, and a single touch or swipe to start or end a call is allowed. Scrolling and typing are not.²

The statute carves out four situations where the ban does not apply.¹ A driver may use a device while reporting a traffic accident, medical emergency, fire, a criminal or delinquent act, or a road hazard that poses an immediate safety threat. Utility employees and contractors responding to a utility emergency are exempt within the scope of their work. So are law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, and other public safety responders performing their duties. The fourth exception is being lawfully parked. Sitting at a red light or stopped in stop-and-go traffic does not count as parked, so the phone stays down until you pull over and stop.

Fines, points, and the first-offense out

Penalties rise with each conviction inside a 24-month window. A first conviction carries a fine of up to $50 and one point on your license. A second brings up to $100 and two points. A third or later conviction runs up to $150 and three points.²¹ The statute sets the fines; the Department of Driver Services adds the points to your record, where they can push up insurance premiums and stack toward a license suspension.

Georgia gives first-time defendants one way out. A person charged for the first time under the hold-or-support provision who brings a hands-free device, or proof of buying one, to court "shall not be guilty of such offense."¹ It's a one-time affirmative defense, and the court makes the driver affirm under oath that they have not used it before.

How often distracted driving causes crashes in Georgia

The numbers come from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, drawing on the state's crash outcome data. In 2023, 55% of all motor vehicle crashes in Georgia involved at least one driver who was confirmed or suspected to be distracted, up from 53% the year before.³ Confirmed cases alone are more conservative: 41 fatal crashes, 2.6% of the 1,562 fatal crashes statewide, involved a confirmed distracted driver, and those crashes killed 41 people. Confirmed distraction was tied to 383 serious injuries that year.³

Most of these wrecks hurt someone other than the distracted driver. In 79% of distraction-related crashes, at least one other vehicle was involved.³ Rear-end collisions were the most common pattern; on interstates, 64% of crashes involving a confirmed distracted driver were rear-end hits.³ Younger drivers carry an outsized share. Those aged 15 to 24 were overrepresented in distraction crashes and drew more post-crash distracted-driving citations than any other age group.³

Hand-held texting and dialing is still the distraction officers and researchers see most. A 2024 roadside survey by Emory University's Injury Prevention Research Center, based on roughly 23,000 observations at 400 sites across 20 counties, found 14.7% of drivers visibly distracted, about one in seven at any given moment. Georgia's observed rate of hand-held phone use, 6.6%, sits above the 5.2% national figure.³ The behavior did drop right after the law took effect: a Cambridge Mobile Telematics analysis measured a 23.7% reduction in the first two weeks and 17.9% after three months.³

What a phone violation means for your injury claim

Georgia is an at-fault state, so the distracted driver's liability insurance is the first source of payment. In a civil case, a hands-free violation is worth more than the ticket. Georgia treats the unexcused violation of a safety statute as negligence per se. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-6, breaking a law meant to protect others and causing harm establishes the breach of duty without a separate argument that the conduct was unreasonable.⁴ You still have to prove the violation caused your injuries, and the presumption can be rebutted, but a documented phone violation is strong footing.

Fault is not all-or-nothing. Georgia uses modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar: if you are found 50% or more responsible you recover nothing, and below that your damages are reduced by your share.⁵ Expect the other side to argue you were partly to blame, which is why the citation, the crash report, and the at-fault driver's phone records matter early. If you need a lawyer to pursue the claim, the legal directory is a place to start.

Two deadlines control. You generally have two years from the crash date to sue for injuries, under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, and four years for vehicle and other property damage under § 9-3-32.⁶⁷ The longer property window matters if you're also pursuing the drop in your car's resale value; see the guide to diminished value in Georgia. If the texting driver carried only Georgia's minimum limits and your losses run higher, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage can fill the gap. Every Georgia auto policy includes it at your liability limits unless you rejected it in writing, under O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11.⁸

The single most useful document is the official crash report, prepared on the Georgia Department of Transportation's standard form and stored in the state crash database.⁹ You can read how to pull yours on the Georgia crash reports page.

A distracted-driving case in Georgia turns on specifics: which subsection the driver broke, and what their phone records show once you subpoena them. Getting the crash report and preserving that evidence early is what makes the difference provable.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-241, Distracted Driving; Restrictions on Operation of Wireless Telecommunications Devices and Stand-Alone Electronic Devices; Penalty; Exceptions (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-40/chapter-6/article-11/section-40-6-241/

2. Georgia Department of Driver Services, Chapter 2: Traffic Laws & Safe Driving. https://dds.georgia.gov/chapter-2-traffic-laws-safe-driving

3. Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, 2023 Distracted Driving Georgia Traffic Safety Facts (CODES and FARS data). https://www.gahighwaysafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2023-Distracted-Driving-Georgia-Traffic-Safety-Facts.pdf

4. O.C.G.A. § 51-1-6, Recovery of Damages Upon Breach of Legal Duty (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2020/title-51/chapter-1/section-51-1-6/

5. O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, Comparative negligence and apportionment of damages (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-51/chapter-12/article-1/section-51-12-33/

6. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, Injuries to the person; two-year limitation (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-9/chapter-3/article-2/section-9-3-33/

7. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-32, Injuries to personalty; four-year limitation (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-9/chapter-3/article-2/section-9-3-32/

8. O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11, Uninsured motorist coverage (Justia). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-33/chapter-7/section-33-7-11/

9. Georgia Department of Transportation, Crash Data and Reporting. https://www.dot.ga.gov/GDOT/pages/CrashReporting.aspx