Phones and smoking while driving

They are the two prohibitions in Chapter X of Act 22-2000 governing what happens inside the car while driving: phone use and smoke. They sit together here because they are the two administrative offences most commonly committed day to day, and because each has an exception or a detail almost nobody knows.

Article 10.25 applies to anyone driving a motor vehicle. Article 10.26 applies to anyone smoking in a motor vehicle where there are one or more minors under eighteen: the Act says “no person”, not only the driver.

• To use the phone lawfully while driving: a hands-free device or system, and not being a driver of a bus, school transport, truck or motorcycle, because for those four no exception applies (Article 10.25).Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The rule: hands-free or nothing

   Article 10.25 opens: “No person shall drive a motor vehicle while using a mobile or cordless phone, except where a user answers or makes a call using a hands-free device or system”. The exception is the mode of use, not the reason: talking with the phone in your hand is prohibited however short the conversation.

2. 2

   Step 2: The five exceptions the Act does grant

   The same article says the prohibition shall not apply in five cases. Where the vehicle is not in motion and is not obstructing traffic. Where calls or communications are made to law-enforcement agencies or relating to some kind of medical or safety emergency, “emergency meaning a situation of immediate risk to health, life or property”. Where it is to use the Global Positioning System (GPS). Where it is to start or end a call. And to drivers of vehicles assigned to attend emergency situations while attending real emergencies, as defined in the Act.

3. 3

   Step 3: Four classes of driver with no exception at all

   This is the sentence that decides many tickets and that almost nobody knows. After listing the five exceptions, Article 10.25 adds: “Provided that in the case of drivers of buses, school transport, trucks or motorcycles no exception shall apply”. Read it literally: for someone driving a bus, school transport, a truck or a motorcycle, hands-free does not count, GPS does not count, and starting or ending the call does not count.

4. 4

   Step 4: Texting is prohibited too, in any app

   The article says it without leaving gaps: “This prohibition shall extend to sending and reading text messages; including, without limitation, emails, text messages (SMS) and messages through the use of any other application or programme that allows sending and receiving voice, image or text messages on mobile phones”. Not just sending: reading too. And not just SMS: any messaging application, including voice and image messages.

5. 5

   Step 5: The phone fine: a hundred dollars

   Article 10.25 closes by saying every driver who violates its provisions commits an administrative offence and shall be fined one hundred dollars. It is an administrative offence, not a crime.

6. 6

   Step 6: Smoking with a minor under eighteen aboard

   Article 10.26, added by Act 69-2017, is short: “No person may smoke in a motor vehicle when there are one (1) or more minors under eighteen (18) years of age in it”. Note two things. It says “no person”, not “no driver”: a passenger who smokes also commits the offence. And a single minor under eighteen is enough, whatever their exact age and whether or not the windows are open.

7. 7

   Step 7: Two hundred and fifty dollars, and where part goes

   Anyone violating Article 10.26 commits an administrative offence and shall be fined two hundred and fifty dollars. The Act adds a specific destination worth knowing: “Provided that ten (10) per cent of what is collected annually from these fines shall go to the University Paediatric Hospital of the Puerto Rico Medical Centre”. And for what “smoking” means, the article refers to Article 2 of Act 40-1993; we did not read that Act, so we do not define the term ourselves.

There is no procedure: these are rules of conduct on the public road. The stop is made by the law-enforcement officer or the Municipal Police, and the ticket is handled through the ordinary traffic-ticket review route.

• Believing holding the phone for a second is fine: the rule is hands-free, not brevity.
• Thinking hands-free works for everyone: for buses, school transport, trucks and motorcycles no exception applies.
• Using GPS in your hand while riding a motorcycle or driving a truck: those drivers do not have that exception.
• Believing reading a message does not count: the prohibition covers sending and reading.
• Thinking it only means SMS: it includes emails and any voice, image or text messaging application.
• Stopping in the middle of the road to answer: the exception requires the vehicle not be in motion and not be obstructing traffic.
• Calling about anything and claiming an emergency: the Act defines emergency as a situation of immediate risk to health, life or property.
• Believing smoking with the windows open solves it: the Act does not condition it on that.
• Thinking only the driver is fined: Article 10.26 says “no person”.
• Assuming it takes a small child: one or more minors under eighteen is enough.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov