Georgia doesn’t have a hand-held ban for all drivers, except for two classes of drivers, novice drivers and school bus drivers. Novice drivers (under the age of 18) are not allowed to use any kind of hand held, hands-free or electronic devices behind the wheel because they lack the maturity, experience and are more likely to be distracted behind the wheel. School bus drivers are subject to the same restrictions while driving a school bus.

Text Messaging Ban in Georgia: Texting while driving is prohibited by all drivers. You can even receive a ticket for texting while at a red light or even if your vehicle is stopped.

In 2015, According the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there was an alarming increase in car accidents due to use of apps while driving. The use of these apps and other distracted driving habits like talking or texting while driving has become as great a danger on the road as drunk driving. Some examples of apps that can result in significant distracted driving habits are:

• Snapchat: allows drivers to post photos which show how fast you are going at the time the picture was taken, encouraging inexperienced drivers to take photographs at high speeds.
• Waze: is a navigation app which encourages and gives rewards to drivers to report traffic jams, police cars on the road and car accidents.
• Pokemon Go: this app became a recent cultural phenomenon encouraging drivers to search for virtual creatures on the side of the road. Drivers using this app while behind the wheel often become more focused on catching these virtual creatures than how they are driving.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident caused by the negligent actions of a distracted driver, call  the Marietta Personal Injury Attorneys at Yates Law at 404-662-2227 for your free, no obligation initial client consultation.