Charleston County recorded 470 citations under South Carolina's Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act in the first 30 days of full enforcement, the highest of any county in the state, according to data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and local reports. The law, which reached full enforcement on February 28, 2026, allows officers to issue tickets instead of warnings, and the timing coincides with the summer travel season, when roads across the peninsula and Mount Pleasant see peak traffic.
The act took effect on September 1, 2025, with an initial six-month warning period. First offenses carry a $100 fine, while subsequent violations within three years result in a $200 fine and two points on the driver's record. Under Section 56-5-3890, drivers are prohibited from holding or supporting a phone with any part of their body while the vehicle is moving, a broader standard than the state's previous texting-only ban.
For those injured in crashes involving distracted driving, a citation can serve as critical evidence of negligence. South Carolina follows a modified comparative negligence standard under S.C. Code Section 15-38-15, meaning fault allocation is central to injury claims. A distracted driving violation can reduce the ambiguity insurers often use to shift blame onto the injured party, according to the Charleston personal injury lawyers at Woron and Dhillon, LLC.
“A ticket makes the conversation with the insurance company very different,” said Brett Woron, a partner at the firm. “When there is documentation that a driver was on a phone, it becomes much harder to argue the crash was unavoidable. Injured people should know that evidence exists and how quickly it can disappear.”
Beyond the citation itself, other evidence can strengthen a distracted driving claim, including phone records aligned with the moment of impact, police reports noting handheld device use at the scene, and witness accounts of the driver looking down or holding a phone. Woron and Dhillon, LLC, which has more than 30 years of combined experience handling car accidents, catastrophic injuries, and wrongful death claims throughout South Carolina, emphasizes the importance of preserving such evidence promptly.
The full enforcement of the hands-free law comes as summer traffic increases the risk of collisions. With Charleston County leading the state in citations, the legal implications for injury claims are significant. Injured parties may benefit from understanding how a citation can influence fault determinations in a distracted driving accident claim.
