New year brings new laws in Arizona
As of January 1, 2021, drivers can only access and use their phones if they are in hands-free mode.
Author: Matt Yurus (12News)
Updated: 8:45 PM MST December 27, 2020
PHOENIX — Phones in hand, fingers tapping away, eyes darting up and down. Drivers stopping at green lights, weaving, rapidly self-correcting or worse.
"We’ve had an instance where we’ve lost a trooper that was killed, because a commercial driver was driving distracted,” Raul Garcia of the Department of Public Safety said.
In the aftermath of Officer Clay Townsend’s death, who died conducting a traffic stop in January 2019, his family pushed for change.