Paul Miller’s Law Is Now Fully Enforced in Pennsylvania: What Every Driver — and Every Crash Victim — Needs to Know

On June 5, 2026, Pennsylvania’s hands-free driving law, known as Paul Miller’s Law, entered full enforcement. The one-year warning-only grace period that began June 5, 2025, is over. Pennsylvania police officers across all 67 counties can now stop drivers, issue summary citations, and impose fines for holding or supporting an interactive mobile device behind the wheel, even when the vehicle is stopped at a red light or sitting in traffic.

If you are a Pennsylvania driver, this changes what you can do behind the wheel. If you have been hit by a distracted driver, it dramatically changes the evidence available to prove your case. This guide explains exactly what the law prohibits, the penalties for violation, the exceptions that still allow lawful phone use, the story behind the law’s name, and how a Paul Miller’s Law violation affects civil claims after a crash. At GLS Injury Law, our attorneys have recovered more than $120,000,000 for injured clients across Lancaster, York, and Chester County, including in cases involving distracted drivers.

Who Paul Miller Was, and Why This Law Carries His Name

Paul Miller, Jr., was a 21-year-old from Scranton, Monroe County, with his whole life ahead of him. On July 5, 2010, he was driving on Route 33 in Monroe County when a distracted tractor-trailer driver, reaching for a cellphone, lost control, crossed the center grass divider, and crashed head-on into Paul’s vehicle. Paul died as a result of the crash.

In the years that followed, Paul’s mother, Eileen Miller, became one of Pennsylvania’s leading advocates for distracted driving reform. Through public speaking engagements, legislative testimony, media interviews, and meetings with lawmakers, she spent more than a decade urging Pennsylvania officials to strengthen distracted driving laws and raise awareness about the dangers of cellphone use behind the wheel.

According to public legislative records and news reports, Eileen Miller worked alongside lawmakers, safety advocates, and families impacted by distracted driving as support grew for stronger hands-free driving legislation in Pennsylvania.

State Senator Rosemary Brown sponsored Senate Bill 37, and on June 5, 2024, Governor Josh Shapiro signed the legislation into law as Act 18 of 2024. News coverage and photographs from the bill-signing ceremony showed Eileen Miller standing alongside elected officials as the measure became law.

Throughout her advocacy efforts, Miller consistently encouraged drivers to put their phones away and focus on the road.

Pennsylvania became the 29th state to enact a hands-free driving law. The legislation received bipartisan support, reflecting growing recognition of the dangers posed by distracted driving and handheld cellphone use behind the wheel.

What the Law Actually Means

Paul Miller’s Law is codified at 75 Pa. C.S. § 3316.1 and amends the definition of “Interactive Mobile Device” (IMD) in 75 Pa. C.S. § 102. In plain language, the law prohibits any driver from using a hand-held interactive mobile device while operating a motor vehicle on a Pennsylvania highway.

What Counts as an “Interactive Mobile Device”

The law defines an IMD broadly to include any of the following:

• Hand-held cell phones
• Smartphones
• Tablets and iPads
• Mobile computers
• Other portable electronics capable of texting, email, browsing, messaging, gaming, image or video capture, streaming, social media, or other interactive functions

What Counts as “Use” Under the Law

“Use” is also broadly defined. Each of the following counts as a violation:

• Holding the device in your hand or against another part of your body (lap, shoulder, between cheek and shoulder)
• Pressing more than one button to initiate or end a communication
• Reaching for the device in a way that requires you to become unseated or remove your seatbelt

What Counts as “Driving”

This is the provision that most surprises drivers. “Driving” under Paul Miller’s Law includes any time a driver is operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway, not just when the vehicle is moving. The law specifically applies when a driver is:

• Temporarily stopped at a red light or stop sign
• Sitting in stop-and-go traffic
• Stopped because of a traffic jam or other momentary delay

The only exception to the “driving” definition is when a driver has pulled the vehicle safely off the roadway to a location where it can remain stationary; not the shoulder of an active highway, but a parking lot, driveway, or other off-road location. Picking up the phone at a red light is now a citable offense in Pennsylvania.

What Is Still Allowed Under Paul Miller’s Law

Pennsylvania drivers can still use their phones, just not by holding them. The law specifically permits:

• Hands-free operation through Bluetooth, voice-activated commands, integrated vehicle systems, or one-touch buttons. Voice calls, voice texts, music control, and GPS navigation are all permitted hands-free.
• Dashboard or windshield-mounted devices used for GPS or navigation, so long as the driver is not holding the device.
• Emergency communications to alert law enforcement, fire, ambulance, or other emergency services, to prevent injury to persons or property. The law explicitly preserves this exception.
• Stopped off the road in a parking lot, driveway, or other location where the vehicle can remain safely stationary outside the flow of traffic.
• Mass transit and school bus integrated devices that are part of the vehicle’s operational systems.
• Built-in vehicle communication systems such as factory-installed dashboard interfaces, Apple CarPlay or Android Auto when operated through the vehicle’s controls, and similar integrated systems.

Penalties for Violating Paul Miller’s Law

The base penalty structure is straightforward:

• Primary offense. A Paul Miller’s Law violation is a primary offense, meaning a Pennsylvania police officer can pull a driver over for this violation alone. No other traffic violation is required.
• Summary citation – $50 fine. Beginning June 5, 2026, drivers convicted under 75 Pa. C.S. § 3316.1 face a $50 fine plus court costs and applicable fees.
• No license points for the base violation. Unlike many moving violations, the base Paul Miller’s Law fine does not add points to a driver’s license.

Texting while driving remains separately prohibited under 75 Pa. C.S. § 3316, also carrying a $50 fine. A driver can be cited under both statutes for the same conduct in some circumstances.

The 5-Year Enhancement for Fatal Crashes

The most consequential provision of Paul Miller’s Law is not the $50 fine. Under the same legislation, drivers convicted of homicide by vehicle (75 Pa. C.S. § 3732) – in connection with a distracted driving violation can face up to an additional five years in prison on top of the base homicide-by-vehicle sentence. This enhancement applies specifically when distracted driving caused or contributed to the fatal crash.

For commercial drivers, the consequences extend beyond the criminal court. A Paul Miller’s Law violation enters the driver’s CDL record under federal regulation, with potential consequences for licensing, employment, and insurance. Trucking companies face additional exposure as well, since hand-held device use violates federal commercial driver regulations independent of state law.

How Paul Miller’s Law Changes Civil Cases After a Crash

The criminal side of Paul Miller’s Law gets the headlines. The civil side may matter more for crash victims. A violation of 75 Pa. C.S. § 3316.1, even where charges are not pursued, substantially strengthens the evidence in a civil personal injury lawsuit in several ways:

Negligence Per Se

Under Pennsylvania law, violation of a safety statute designed to protect a class of people from a specific kind of harm constitutes negligence per se. Where a Paul Miller’s Law violation contributed to a crash, the violation itself supports a finding of negligence by the at-fault driver. The injured victim still must prove causation and damages, but the negligence prong of the case becomes substantially easier in a civil personal injury claim.

Phone Records as Discoverable Evidence

After any serious Pennsylvania crash, an experienced personal injury attorney can subpoena cell phone records from the at-fault driver’s carrier. Phone records show calls, texts, data usage, and (with location services) the device’s approximate location in the seconds before, during, and after the crash. Where the records show the driver was on the phone at the moment of impact, with no exemption applicable, the evidence is devastating. Paul Miller’s Law adds a layer of statutory authority to what these records demonstrate.

Punitive Damages

Pennsylvania case law generally treats conduct involving knowing disregard of public safety as supporting punitive damages. A driver who used a hand-held device in willful violation of a clearly marked, publicly publicized safety law, particularly one named after a young man killed in similar circumstances, sets the stage for a strong punitive damages claim. Punitive damages can substantially increase the value of a civil case and are not subject to a cap in standard Pennsylvania personal injury cases.

Comparative Fault Defense Weakens

Insurers routinely raise comparative fault under Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule (42 Pa. C.S. § 7102) to argue the victim shared fault for the crash. Where the at-fault driver was using a hand-held device in violation of Paul Miller’s Law, those arguments become substantially harder to credit. A jury weighing a driver who was breaking a publicly publicized safety law against a victim doing nothing wrong is going to assign fault very differently than in a case where neither driver had clearly violated a statute.

Pennsylvania’s Distracted Driving Crisis: The Numbers Behind the Law

Paul Miller’s Law exists because the data on Pennsylvania distracted driving is alarming:

• More than 11,000 Pennsylvania crashes in 2023 involved a distracted driver, surpassing the number of alcohol-related crashes that year.
• Driver behavior is the leading factor in 83% of all Pennsylvania crashes, according to PennDOT, with distraction being one of the top three driver behaviors involved.
• Cell phone use is the most consistent, repetitive, and lengthy form of in-vehicle distraction, according to Senator Rosemary Brown’s legislative findings.
• A vehicle traveling 55 miles per hour covers the length of a football field in five seconds, the time a driver typically spends looking down at a phone to read a text.

The Civil Rights Component: Traffic Stop Data Transparency

Paul Miller’s Law contains a less-discussed but significant civil rights provision: it requires Pennsylvania State Police and local police departments above a certain size to collect and publish data on traffic stops made under the new law. The data is intended to provide transparency and accountability, and to allow review for patterns of selective enforcement or racial profiling.

For affected drivers, the data collection requirement has practical consequences. In appropriate cases, defense attorneys and civil rights counsel can request the underlying records in discovery to evaluate whether patterns of enforcement implicate equal protection or selective enforcement concerns. This provision was added to Senate Bill 37 specifically because Pennsylvania policymakers wanted to ensure that the new enforcement authority would not become a pretextual stop tool. Whether the data ultimately reveals such patterns will become clear over time.

Commercial Drivers and Paul Miller’s Law

The law affects every commercial driver on Pennsylvania highways. Federal regulations have long prohibited hand-held device use by drivers of commercial motor vehicles, but Paul Miller’s Law adds a separate state-law violation to the federal one. A truck or commercial vehicle crash involving a hand-held device now produces multiple layers of liability evidence: the federal regulation violation, the Pennsylvania statute violation, and the corporate negligence implications for the carrier that employed or contracted the driver.

The tragic irony of Paul Miller’s death is that the law named after him addresses exactly the kind of crash that killed him. Paul Miller was killed by a commercial truck driver reaching for a phone. The federal regulations existed in 2010. The state law did not. Now it does.

If You Were Hit by a Distracted Driver in Pennsylvania

Whether your crash occurred before or after Paul Miller’s Law took full effect, the steps to protect your case are largely the same. Our guide on steps to take after a car accident in Pennsylvania covers the full checklist. Here’s a breakdown of the key actions specific to a suspected distracted driving crash:

• Tell the officer at the scene what you observed about the other driver- phone visible, looking down at the moment of impact, late reaction, drift across lane lines. Specific observations such as these belong in the police report.
• Photograph the interior of the other vehicle if safe to do so – a phone on the seat, dashboard, or floor at the moment of the crash is powerful evidence.
• Get witness contact information immediately. Independent witnesses observing the at-fault driver on a phone before the crash are some of the most valuable evidence available.
• Do not give recorded statements to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. Politely defer until you have spoken with an attorney.
• Contact a personal injury attorney quickly. Cell phone records require a legal process to obtain and are routinely purged in months. Surveillance footage is overwritten faster than that. The earlier the investigation begins, the more evidence can be preserved.

Fatal Crashes and Paul Miller’s Law

Distracted driving kills. Paul Miller’s Law is named for a young man whose life was cut short by exactly the conduct the statute now prohibits. When a Pennsylvania crash takes a life, surviving family members may pursue a wrongful death claim under 42 Pa. C.S. § 8301 and a separate Survival Act claim. Where a Paul Miller’s Law violation contributed to the fatal crash, the case typically supports punitive damages, the criminal homicide-by-vehicle enhancement under 75 Pa. C.S. § 3732 may apply, and civil recovery is often substantially higher than in ordinary fatal crash cases.