Drivers now face fines for violating Iowa’s ban on handheld cellphone
By Robin Opsahl Iowa Capital Dispatch
Drivers using phones outside of hands-free or voice-activated modes now face a fine as Iowa’s distracted driving law went into full effect at the first of the new year.
The measure, signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in April 2025, expanded Iowa’s previous ban on texting while driving to ban all handheld use of personal electronic devices while driving. Iowa is the 31st state to enact a “hands free” law.
Although the law took effect July 1, law enforcement officers were only able issue warnings throughout 2025. But as of Jan. 1, 2026, drivers are now subject to fines for breaking the law. The baseline fine is $100 for using a phone while texting, increasing to $500 in cases if the incident results in an injury, and to $1,000 in incidents that cause a death.
Larry Grant, state safety planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation, said in 2025, Iowa saw a major reduction in traffic fatalities in comparison to previous years. According to DOT data, there were 260 traffic deaths in 2025 — a total of 97 fewer deaths than in 2024 and a nearly a century low. Public officials say the hands-free law, as well as other factors like people complying with other safety laws by wearing seatbelts or obeying speed limits, have contributed to the state seeing fewer deadly traffic incidents in the past year.
“Now granted, one fatality is too many, and everybody needs to realize that — but we’re we’re down 77 fatalities on average right now,” Grant said at the Dec. 12 recording. “And if you go back for our high in the last five years, we’re down over 100 fatalities. That’s 100 lives that are still here. So that’s just huge when we look at that.”
Other states that have passed similar “hands-free” measures, including Iowa’s neighbors Minnesota and Illinois, have also seen reductions in car crashes and traffic deaths since enacting these restrictions.
Part of the reason fines did not start until 2026 was in an effort to give time for drivers to learn about the new law. Sgt. Alex Dinkla, an Iowa State Patrol spokesperson and Brett Tjepkes, chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, said in December the state and law enforcement officers have made a major push to inform people about the new “hands-free” law through educational materials and distributing pamphlets at rest areas and driver’s licensing stations.
Dinkla said in his experience, most people “probably are aware” of the new law, but that he has still encountered some drivers who do not know about the change.
Many newer cars — and a majority of smartphones — are able to enter hands-free mode to ensure compliance with the law, Dinkla said.
“Something that we had to kind of work through, I think with the public and messaging, is that you don’t have to have a new vehicle with all of the technology involved in it,” he said. “Almost every phone that’s out there will make a hands-free call. You can ask Siri, Alexa, and or even just a one touch which the law allows for, but it can’t be in your hand.”
The law was signed in 2025 after several years of stalling in the legislative process, despite having strong support from law enforcement and safety advocates as well as from families of victims who died in distracted driving incidents.
“It wasn’t one person that did this,” Dinkla said. “It wasn’t one department that did this. This was a collective effort amongst many folks. You heard stories of people that were involved in texting and driving. They championed trying to get that across the finish line. The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, many other city, county supporters with that. So it was definitely a collective effort.”
Iowa State Patrol Trooper, District #4 Public Information Officer Shelby McCreedy (Denison) stated that from the beginning of the six-month warning period, which ran from July 1 – Dec. 31, 2025, the number of warnings decreased, indicating that drivers were complying and learning to adapt to the law.
However, there is still a lot of progress to be made moving forward. McCreedy notes that in December alone, law enforcement issued 1,676 warnings across the state. In total, during the six-month warning period, law enforcement executed 11,237 warnings.
McCreedy says on January 1, 2026 alone, 46 citations were issued to drivers violating the hands-free law. People often ask law enforcement how they see people driving without a seatbelt or using their phones
Trooper McCreedy says that for people who think this will be a complex law to enforce, she says it is not; drivers’ actions make it easy to implement.
