{"id":211055,"date":"2026-06-05T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211055\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:01:07","slug":"pennsylvania-mom-continues-to-educate-drivers-on-dangers-of-using-phones-while-driving-as-law-takes-effect-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211055\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania mom continues to educate drivers on dangers of using phones while driving as law takes effect Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drivers across Pennsylvania who use a handheld cellphone behind the wheel can now face fines under Paul Miller’s Law<\/a>, as the one-year warning period for the new hands-free driving law comes to an end.<\/p>\n

Starting Friday, motorists who are caught holding or using a cellphone while driving can receive a $50 fine. The law applies even when drivers are stopped at a red light or sitting in traffic.<\/p>\n

Prospect Park Police Chief Dave Madonna said officers spent the past year educating drivers about the law, but many motorists still haven’t changed their habits.<\/p>\n

“I think people still are under the impression that these minor distractions are OK, and we’re here to remind them that they’re not,” Madonna said.<\/p>\n

Signs posted along roadways, including Wilmington-West Chester Pike in Glen Mills, urge drivers to put down their phones and focus on driving. Advocates said even brief phone use can leave a driver’s attention hazardously divided, increasing the risk of a crash.<\/p>\n

Madonna gave this advice for drivers who need to answer a call while driving.<\/p>\n

“The safest thing for people to do is to pull over, put their vehicle in park and make sure they take the call that way,” he said.<\/p>\n

Drivers may still use hands-free technology, including voice commands and digital assistants, without handling their phones.<\/p>\n

The law is named after Paul Miller, who was killed in a 2010 crash in Monroe County when a distracted truck driver reached for his cellphone while driving.<\/p>\n

Paul’s mother, Eileen Miller from Scranton, spent years advocating for a hands-free driving law in Pennsylvania. She continues to work with law enforcement agencies across the state to educate drivers about the dangers of using their cellphones while driving.<\/p>\n

\"Eileen<\/p>\n

CBS News Philadelphia<\/p>\n

“It’s a drug,” Miller said. “It’s very, very addicting. Right now, distracted driving, there are more crashes, and we call these crashes because they’re preventable.”<\/p>\n

Miller said she hopes the law will prevent other families from experiencing the loss her family endured.<\/p>\n

Her advocacy efforts continue beyond Paul Miller’s Law. She is also pushing for tougher penalties for speeding in work zones and increased seat belt safety measures.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing more important than a life,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers across Pennsylvania who use a handheld cellphone behind the wheel can now face fines under Paul Miller’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13182,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-211055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-cellphones","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}