If another driver was staring at a phone when they hit you, the rules that decide what happens next changed recently in South Carolina. The state swapped a light texting ban for a full hands-free law in 2025, and enforcement is now real. Here is what the law actually says, what it costs, and how it touches an injury claim.
What the hands-free law bans
South Carolina's current rule is the Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act, signed on May 12, 2025 and in force since September 1, 2025.1 It rewrote S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-3890 so that a driver can no longer hold a phone at all while the vehicle is moving.
Three things are off limits behind the wheel. You cannot hold or support a mobile electronic device with any part of your body. You cannot read, compose, or send a text, email, or similar message. And you cannot watch video of any kind, including a movie, a game, or a video call.12 The statute writes "mobile electronic device" broadly, covering cell phones, tablets, laptops, GPS units, and electronic games, so the ban reaches past smartphones.1 It applies statewide and preempts local cell-phone ordinances, so the rule is the same in Charleston as it is on a rural county road.1
This is a primary offense. An officer can pull you over for holding a phone and nothing else, without needing a separate reason for the stop.2 One limit is worth knowing: police cannot make a custodial arrest solely for a hands-free violation. An arrest is only allowed on a warrant issued for failing to appear in court or failing to pay the fine.1
What you can still do
This is a hands-free law, not a no-phone law. You may use a device if it never touches your hand and you are not typing. Voice-to-text, spoken navigation, streaming audio, and starting or ending a call are all fine as long as you are not holding the phone.12 Systems built into the car by the manufacturer are allowed, and so is a wrist device such as a smartwatch.2
A handful of situations sit outside the ban entirely: a driver who is lawfully parked or stopped, someone reporting a crash or a medical emergency, occupational dispatch data, and first responders performing their duties.1 Everyone else is expected to mount the phone or set it down before driving off.
What it costs, and when tickets started
A first offense is a $100 fine, and no part of it can be suspended.12 A second or later offense within three years is $200 and adds two points to your driving record.1 The point schedule in S.C. Code Ann. § 56-1-720 classifies a repeat distracted-driving violation as a two-point offense.3 Commercial drivers face more. Two violations within three years bring a 60-day disqualification from operating a commercial vehicle.2
Enforcement arrived on a delay. For the first 180 days after the September 1, 2025 effective date, officers issued warnings only. That grace period ended and citations began on February 28, 2026.2 If you were hit after that date, the driver on the phone was subject to a live, enforceable ticket, not a warning.
How this differs from the old texting ban
South Carolina's earlier rule, on the books since 2014, banned only texting and carried a maximum fine of $25.4 The new act raised that first-offense fine to $100 and went well beyond texting to cover holding the phone for any reason.1 Record-keeping changed too. A repeat offense now puts points on your driving record,13 and the act directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to keep citation information and share it with the Department of Public Safety.1 The old $25 texting ticket was a minor footnote. The current law is not.
Distracted driving crashes in South Carolina
The problem behind the law is large. The Department of Public Safety lists distracted or inattentive driving as a top contributing factor in more than 20,000 collisions every year in South Carolina.5 The Department of Insurance frames it a second way: the state averages roughly two crashes every hour involving a distracted driver, and in 2019 distraction contributed to 18,936 reported collisions.6 Those counts almost certainly run low, because drivers rarely admit they were looking at a screen, so a crash caused by a phone often gets coded as something vaguer.
How the law affects an injury claim
South Carolina is an at-fault state, so the driver who caused the crash and their insurer pay for the harm. Fault is measured under modified comparative negligence. You can recover as long as you were not more than 50 percent responsible, and your award is cut by your own share of the blame.7 A driver who was cited for holding a phone was breaking a traffic safety law at the moment of impact, and that is directly relevant to how fault gets divided. A citation, and for repeat offenders a point record, gives your claim documented proof of what the other driver was doing.
Timing matters. You generally have three years from the date of injury to file suit in South Carolina under S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530, and the clock can pause while an injured person is a minor or under a legal disability.8 Miss that window and the claim is usually gone, no matter how clear the other driver's fault was.
Insurance floors here are modest. Every policy must carry at least 25/50/25, meaning $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for injuries plus $25,000 for property damage.9 If the at-fault driver carried only that minimum and your injuries are serious, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is often where the rest of the money comes from.
A few practical steps after a phone-related crash. Get the police report, which records the other driver's conduct and any citation, through the South Carolina crash report system. Keep every medical record tied to the wreck. If your car was damaged, you may have a separate diminished value claim on top of the repair bill. When the injuries or the fault dispute are significant, it is worth talking to an attorney before you give a recorded statement or accept an early offer from the insurer.
This article is general information about South Carolina law and is not legal advice.
Sources
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South Carolina General Assembly, 2025 Act No. 40 (H.3276), the South Carolina Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act, amending S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-3890. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3276.htm
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South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Hands Free SC. https://scdps.sc.gov/handsfree
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S.C. Code Ann. § 56-1-720, point system for moving traffic violations. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t56c001.php
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South Carolina General Assembly, 2013-2014 Bill 459, the 2014 texting-while-driving ban. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess120_2013-2014/bills/459.htm
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South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Distracted Driving. https://scdps.sc.gov/distracted-driving
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South Carolina Department of Insurance, Distracted Driving. https://doi.sc.gov/884/Distracted-Driving
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Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243, 399 S.E.2d 783 (S.C. 1991). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1265650/nelson-v-concrete-supply-company/
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S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530, three-year statute of limitations. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php
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S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-140, minimum liability limits. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php