Texting and distracted driving laws in Maryland

If a driver who was looking at a phone hit you, the specific Maryland rules that driver broke matter to your case. Distraction is not a minor factor here. The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration reports that distracted driving contributes to 48 percent of all crashes in the state, with more than 53,000 distracted-driving crashes a year on average between 2017 and 2021.¹ In 2021 alone there were 50,882 of them, 14,442 causing injury and 205 fatal.¹

Those numbers are made of local crashes. thatcarhitme.com's own report for Montgomery County counted 898 crashes in May 2025.² A share of any month's total traces back to a driver reading a text, dialing, or holding a phone to an ear.

Here is what Maryland law actually says, and how it can change a claim.

Two separate bans, both primary offenses

Maryland splits phone use behind the wheel into two statutes.

The handheld ban, the Communications Traffic Safety Act, is Md. Code, Transportation §21-1124.2. A driver may use hands only to "initiate or terminate a wireless telephone call or to turn on or turn off" the device.³ Holding a phone to talk, or just gripping it while the car is moving, is the violation. It is a primary offense, so an officer can stop a driver for the phone alone, with no other reason.⁴

The text-messaging ban sits separately at §21-1124.1. A driver may not use a device to "write, send, or read a text message or an electronic message while operating a motor vehicle in the travel portion of the roadway."⁵ Reading a message counts, not only typing one. Maryland has banned texting behind the wheel since 2009, and it is also a primary offense.⁴

A point drivers get wrong: the texting ban applies in the travel portion of the roadway.⁵ Stopped at a red light in a travel lane, you are still on the roadway, so thumbing through messages there is not the safe harbor many people assume.

What a ticket costs

For a handheld violation, §21-1124.2 sets fines by count: up to $75 for a first offense, up to $125 for a second, and up to $175 for a third or later offense.³

The statute has an unusual feature. Points are not assessed for a handheld violation unless the offense contributes to a crash.³ A routine handheld ticket usually stays off your point total, but the same conduct that causes a collision does put points on the record.⁴ A court can also waive the penalty for a first offender who shows proof of buying a hands-free accessory.³

Texting under §21-1124.1 is a misdemeanor and adds a point to the driver's record, with more if the texting contributed to a crash.⁴

Jake's Law: when distraction becomes a crime

Those are traffic penalties. Maryland has a separate criminal statute for the worst outcomes. Under §21-1124.3, known as Jake's Law, a driver who violates the texting or handheld ban and causes a crash that directly results in the death or serious bodily injury of another person faces up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.⁶ The term "serious bodily injury" uses the definition in §20-102(c) of the Transportation Article.⁶

The law is named for Jake Owen, a five-year-old boy killed in 2011 by a distracted driver, and it took effect in 2014. If a driver on a phone seriously hurt you, this is the provision that puts criminal weight behind the civil claim.

Stricter rules for new and young drivers

Maryland is tougher on drivers who have not earned full privileges yet. A driver holding a learner's instructional permit or a provisional license may not use a handheld phone at all while driving, not even to start or end a call.³ For a driver under 18 with a learner's permit or provisional license, §21-1124 bans using any wireless communication device behind the wheel, hands-free included.⁷ A school bus driver carrying passengers faces the same total ban while the bus is in motion.³

The exceptions the statute allows

The bans are not absolute. The handheld law does not apply when you contact 911 or a hospital, ambulance service, fire company, or law enforcement in an emergency.³ On-duty police, firefighters, and emergency responders are exempt, and so are operators of commercial vehicles using a push-to-talk feature.³ The texting ban carves out using a GPS system and contacting emergency services.⁵

How distraction affects a Maryland injury claim

Proving the other driver was distracted matters more in Maryland than in most states, because of one hard rule. Maryland is one of the few jurisdictions that still applies pure contributory negligence. Under Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, a person who is even one percent at fault for their own injuries recovers nothing.⁸ Evidence that the other driver was texting or holding a phone helps put the fault on them and keep it off you.

The same rule works against you if the roles reverse. If the other side can argue you were distracted, they will use it to try to defeat your claim outright. That is why phone records, the police report, and witness statements carry so much weight. Jake's Law also requires drivers in serious distracted-driving crashes to give police basic information about their phones, which can make those records easier to obtain.

You generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in Maryland, the general civil limitations period under Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-101.⁹ Miss it and the claim is almost always gone. If you need the official report for your case, Maryland handles those through a state process covered on the Maryland crash reports page. If your car was worth less after the repair, that loss is a separate diminished value claim. And if you are weighing whether to handle this alone or bring in help, the legal directory lists attorneys who take these cases.

The same facts that make the other driver's conduct a violation, the phone in the hand and the text on the screen, are the facts that build your case.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Maryland Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Administration, Maryland Highway Safety Office (Zero Deaths Maryland), Distracted Driving Program Area Brief. https://zerodeathsmd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/FFY23_Distracted_ProgramAreaBrief-Data_Final.pdf

2. thatcarhitme.com, Montgomery County, MD Crash Report, May 2025. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/maryland/montgomery-county/may-2025-report

3. Md. Code, Transportation §21-1124.2 (Communications Traffic Safety Act, handheld telephone use). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-1124.2&enactments=false

4. Maryland People's Law Library (Maryland Judiciary), Texting or Using a Telephone While Driving. https://www.peoples-law.org/texting-or-using-telephone-while-driving

5. Md. Code, Transportation §21-1124.1 (text messaging prohibited). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-1124.1&enactments=false

6. Md. Code, Transportation §21-1124.3 (Jake's Law). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-1124.3&enactments=false

7. Md. Code, Transportation §21-1124 (wireless communication device use by minor with learner's permit or provisional license). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-1124&enactments=false

8. Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, 432 Md. 679 (2013). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/9a12.pdf

9. Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-101 (three-year statute of limitations). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101&enactments=false