It’s a secondary offense with only a maximum $50 civil penalty, though.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here’s the complete law that will go into effect on July 1st.<\/p>\n
\u00a7 46.2-1078.1. Use of handheld personal communications devices in certain motor vehicles; exceptions; penalty.<\/p>\n
A. It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a moving motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth while using any handheld personal communications device to:<\/p>\n
1. Manually enter multiple letters or text in the device as a means of communicating with another person; or<\/p>\n
2. Read any email or text message transmitted to the device or stored within the device, provided that this prohibition shall not apply to any name or number stored in the device nor to any caller identification information.<\/p>\n
B. The provisions of this section shall not apply to:<\/p>\n
1. The operator of any emergency vehicle; <\/p>\n
2. An operator who is lawfully parked or stopped;<\/p>\n
3. The use of factory-installed or aftermarket global positioning systems (GPS) or wireless communications devices used to transmit or receive data as part of a digital dispatch system; or<\/p>\n
4. Any person using a handheld personal communications device to report an emergency.<\/p>\n
C. No citation for a violation of this section shall be issued unless the officer issuing such citation has cause to stop or arrest the driver of such motor vehicle for the violation of some other provision of this Code or local ordinance relating to the operation, ownership, or maintenance of a motor vehicle or any criminal statute.<\/p>\n
D. A violation of any provision of this section shall constitute a traffic infraction punishable, for a first offense, by a fine of $20 and, for a second or subsequent offense, by a fine of $50.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Since it’s a secondary offense and will be almost impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court, I’m betting that there will be very few of these civil penalties actually given out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s a secondary offense with only a maximum $50 civil penalty, though.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-17t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5792,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/09\/one-of-the-stupidest-bomb-threats-of-all-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":4307,"position":0},"title":"One of the stupidest bomb threats of all time.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you frustrated with your job? Things not going the way you want them to? Well, we don't have any solutions for you but we can advise you on how not to deal with that situation. From our friends at the Henry County Sheriff's Office... On Monday, November 9, 2009,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Henry County"","block_context":{"text":"Henry County","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/henry-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14144,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/01\/youcentral-gary-miller-talks-about-pollution-spills\/","url_meta":{"origin":4307,"position":1},"title":"YouCentral: Gary Miller talks about pollution spills.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here at SouthsideCentral, we invite all people and organizations to send us opinion pieces and statements. We will publish them unedited on a space-available basis. 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Although the business meeting starts at 6:30 PM, Council will have a closed session with City Attorney Clarke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17050,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/13\/pennrose-mall-still-dead-part-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":4307,"position":3},"title":"Pennrose Mall: Still Dead (Part #5)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In the National Football League, piling on is a 15-yard personal foul penalty. Here at SouthsideCentral, it's just an excuse to have fun at Reidsville's Pennrose Mall's expense. Part #5 is ready to go! Here's the links to the other articles we've published in this series: Part #1 - Part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/QEW3jna.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/QEW3jna.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/QEW3jna.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/QEW3jna.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27697,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/20\/ask-southsidecentral-a-danville-curfew-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":4307,"position":4},"title":"Ask SouthsideCentral! – A Danville Curfew Question","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of our readers had a question about Danville's curfew ordinance, so SouthsideCentral went to the top of the food chain to get some answers. 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They moved all the students and faculty to the neighboring middle school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eden NC"","block_context":{"text":"Eden NC","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/eden-nc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}