Public Health Law Research Distracted Driving Laws Dataset, 2000-2011

This project compiled state and District of Columbia laws regulating the use of mobile communication devices (MCD) by individuals operating motor vehicles and coded some of the laws' features in a data file.

The data file contains information about prohibitions against talking or texting on a MCD for different groups of drivers:

• 16 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 16 year old drivers
• 17 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 17 year old drivers
• 18 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 18 year old drivers
• All drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All drivers

For each of these groups, the coded features include the date each provision against talking or texting on a MCD went into effect, whether there is hands-free exception to the prohibition, whether there is a primary or secondary method of enforcement, and the minimum and maximum fines for the first, second, and third violations. The data file is structured so that each record reflects the coded features of relevant law at a given month. Thus, every state and the District of Columbia has 144 records in the file, one for each month from January 2000 to December 2011.

A separate PDF file contains the text of the laws.