Yes. Texas Transportation Code § 545.4251 makes it an offense for a driver to use a portable phone for reading, writing or sending a message while the vehicle is moving. The fine is small for a first ticket, but it rises sharply when the messaging causes a death or serious injury, and the same facts can support a civil injury claim.
The short version
- The ban is statewide and has been since 1 September 2017. The text of § 545.4251 shows it was added by House Bill 62 in 2017, and subsection (j) says it preempts local rules on reading, writing or sending messages.
- A first ticket is a fine of $25 to $99; a repeat is $100 to $200. Where the driver caused another person’s death or serious bodily injury, the offense is a Class A misdemeanor, with fines capped at $4,000 and a possible year of confinement (§ 545.4251(e), (f)).
- The statute lists defenses, not blanket exceptions: hands-free use, navigation, reporting a crime or summoning help, music, and a few others.
- Drivers under 18, school crossing zones and bus drivers have separate rules (§§ 545.424 and 545.425).
- TxDOT counted 380 deaths in Texas crashes involving distracted driving in 2024, 5.71 percent fewer than in 2023.
What exactly does Texas ban when a driver uses a phone?
Reading, writing or sending an electronic message with a portable wireless device while operating a motor vehicle that is not stopped. The statute defines an electronic message as data read from or entered into a wireless device to communicate with another person, and the offense does not apply while the vehicle is stopped.
The same subsection says how the offense is proved: the behavior must happen in view of a peace officer or be “established by other evidence.” The second route matters after a crash, because an officer rarely sees the moment of impact. A witness who saw a lit screen in a driver’s hand, or the driver’s own account, may be that other evidence.
The ban addresses messaging; it does not forbid every use of a phone. The wider catalogue of distractions is covered on our distracted driving accident page, and why our pages on electronic device use, talking with passengers, eating at the wheel and grooming behind the wheel each take one habit at a time. For the bigger picture of how phones fit among the other ways drivers lose focus, read why texting is only the beginning.
What can a driver lawfully do with a phone in Texas?
Use it hands-free, for navigation, to report illegal activity or call for help, to read a message the driver reasonably believed concerned an emergency, or to start music. The statute calls these affirmative defenses, which means the driver raises them after being charged.
The six defenses in § 545.4251(c) are: use with a hands-free device; navigation by GPS or a navigation system; reporting illegal activity, summoning emergency help, or entering information into an app that gives traffic and road conditions; reading a message the driver reasonably believed concerned an emergency; a device affixed to the vehicle that relays information in the course of the driver’s job between the driver and a dispatcher or a digital network; and activating a function that plays music. Section 545.425(a)(1) defines a hands-free device as equipment that lets a driver use a phone “without use of either of the operator’s hands, except to activate or deactivate a function.”
A defense to a ticket is not the same as care toward others on the road. A driver can use a map lawfully and still look at the screen at the wrong second. Whether that driver used reasonable care is a different question from whether the driver can be convicted of messaging, and it is the question a Houston car accident claim turns on.
What is the penalty for texting while driving in Texas?
A fine of $25 to $99 for a first conviction and $100 to $200 if there is an earlier conviction. If the driver caused the death or serious bodily injury of another person, the statute makes it a Class A misdemeanor, with a fine that can reach $4,000 and up to a year in jail.
| Who | What the statute says | Penalty or limit | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any driver | No reading, writing or sending an electronic message with a portable device while operating a vehicle, unless it is stopped. | Fine of $25 to $99; $100 to $200 after one earlier conviction. | Transp. Code § 545.4251(b), (e) |
| Driver whose messaging caused death or serious bodily injury | Same conduct, proved to have caused another person’s death or serious bodily injury. | Class A misdemeanor, up to $4,000 and one year of jail. | § 545.4251(f) |
| Driver under 18 | No operating a motor vehicle while using a wireless communication device, except in an emergency. | Officers cannot make a stop only to check for this violation. | § 545.424(a), (e) |
| Any driver in a school crossing zone | No use of a wireless device unless the vehicle is stopped or the device is used hands-free. | Signs required at zone entrances; emergency-call and missing-sign defenses in § 545.425(d). | § 545.425(b), (b-1), (d) |
| Operator of a school bus or passenger bus with a minor passenger | No use of a wireless device unless the bus is stopped. | Exception for bus-driver duties used like a two-way radio. | § 545.425(c), (e-1) |
Official text, retrieved 16 October 2026: Transportation Code ch. 545.
Subsection (g) adds that if the conduct is also an offense under another law, the person “may be prosecuted under this section, the other law, or both.” A crash in which a driver was texting might therefore produce more than one charge, a point for the criminal defense side rather than for an injured person’s claim.
Do stricter rules apply to teen drivers, school zones and buses?
Yes. A driver under 18 may not use a wireless device at all while operating a vehicle except in an emergency; a driver in a school crossing zone may use one only when stopped or hands-free; and a bus driver with a minor on board may use one only when the bus is stopped.
Those three rules sit in separate sections, which is why a “texting law” search gives confusing answers. Section 545.424(a) is the teen rule, and its subsection (e) bars an officer from making a stop only to test compliance. Section 545.425(b) is the school-zone rule, and (b-1) requires a local authority that enforces it to post a sign at each entrance to the zone. Section 545.425(c) covers school buses and passenger buses with a minor passenger.
If a bus was involved, see our page for bus accident victims and the article on a school bus crash.
Can Sugar Land or Houston write their own phone rules?
Not for messaging. Section 545.4251(j) says the section “preempts all local ordinances, rules, or other regulations” about using a portable device to read, write or send a message. A separate provision, § 545.425(b-2), contemplates local rules on wireless device use that come with required signs.
The state ban is therefore the same in Sugar Land in Fort Bend County as it is in Houston in Harris County. Where a ticket goes can differ. On its municipal court page, the City of Sugar Land (court address 1200 Highway 6 South) says the court “processes and adjudicates class ‘C’ misdemeanor criminal cases that occur within the territorial limits of the City of Sugar Land,” and lists traffic violations as an example (City of Sugar Land Municipal Court page, read 16 October 2026).
One local enforcement count comes from KPRC. In a report published in January 2020, KPRC’s Channel 2 Investigates found that the Houston Police Department wrote 4,087 citations under the state law between 1 September 2017 and mid-November 2019, and the department’s traffic commander said Austin and San Antonio “have a hands-free ordinance” with fines of up to $500 (KPRC Click2Houston, January 2020). A more recent local example involves a commercial truck: ABC13 reported on 11 August 2024 that, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, an 18-wheeler driver admitted to deputies he had been reading texts shortly before a collision in the 18800 block of State Highway 99 in which the driver of a Ford F-350 died. The report does not mention any charge.
Maida Law Firm serves Sugar Land drivers from its Houston office. For the local side of a crash there, see our Sugar Land car accident and Sugar Land personal injury pages, and our guide to the filing deadline after a Sugar Land crash.
How many people die in Texas crashes involving distracted driving?
TxDOT’s crash facts for calendar year 2024 report 380 people killed in crashes involving distracted driving, which it calls a 5.71 percent decrease from 2023. Statewide, 4,150 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024, so the 380 distraction-related deaths are about 9 percent of that total.
These figures are from TxDOT’s calendar year 2024 crash facts, drawn from officers’ crash reports processed as of 9 April 2025 (TxDOT 2024 crash facts, read 16 October 2026).
TxDOT’s county table for 2024 does not break deaths down by distraction, so this page gives no county-level distracted-driving count. The table does show how many people died on all roads in each county: 579 in Harris County and 41 in Fort Bend County, where Sugar Land sits (TxDOT 2024 fatal crashes by county and road type, read 16 October 2026). Those are totals for every cause, and they are not texting figures. For distraction alongside other causes, see the leading causes of Houston wrecks and Houston’s riskiest roads.
How is phone use shown after a crash?
From several sources used together: the officer’s crash report, witnesses, what the other driver says, and evidence about the phone itself. Because the statute allows proof by “other evidence,” a lack of a citation at the scene does not decide whether the driver was on a phone.
If a collision injures or kills anyone, or visibly damages one person’s property by $1,000 or more, the investigating officer must write a report and file it electronically with TxDOT within ten days (Transportation Code § 550.062(a)-(b)). Our guide to getting a copy of the crash report explains how to obtain it.
Write down what you saw while it is fresh: where the other driver was looking, whether a hand held a phone, the lane and the time. Photographs help (which photos to take), and so do the names of people who stopped (why witnesses are important). When a commercial truck was involved, see the article on a distracted driver and an 18-wheeler and our truck accident page.
Does a texting ticket matter in a civil injury claim?
A ticket and an injury claim are separate. The claim asks whether the other driver was at fault and what the crash cost you; the ticket asks whether the driver broke the messaging law. Texas then divides responsibility by percentage, and you cannot recover if yours is greater than 50 percent.
Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001 bars recovery when the claimant’s share of fault is above half, and § 33.012(a) has the court reduce a claimant’s damages by that percentage when recovery is not barred. How phone use fits into that arithmetic depends on the facts of each case, and the mechanics are laid out in how lawyers answer a comparative negligence argument. The statute that sets out the two-year deadline, § 16.003, is covered in our piece on how long a personal injury case takes.
Damages meant to punish are a separate and harder question. Under § 41.003, exemplary damages require clear and convincing proof that the harm comes from fraud, malice or gross negligence; ordinary negligence does not meet that burden. Whether a particular phone-related crash could meet that standard is a legal judgment for an attorney, made on the evidence. Statutes: Chapter 33 and Chapter 41, both in the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
If a family has lost someone, the questions are different again; the pages on deadly crashes and wrongful death suits apply. And if the driver who hit you was impaired rather than distracted, read our companion piece on DWI crash figures in Texas and the page for drunk driving victims.
What should you do if the other driver was on a phone?
Get medical care first, then write down what you saw, keep the crash report number, and talk to an attorney before agreeing to a recorded statement for the other side’s insurer. At the scene, describe what happened rather than guessing about fault.
The scene checklist is on the after-an-accident page; the first calls are in talking to the insurance adjuster; and the factors behind a number are in what a Houston claim is worth.
Fee questions are covered in how a Houston accident lawyer is paid. Start from the personal injury page, or send the details of the crash if the other driver’s phone use is part of what happened.
Frequently asked questions
Is texting and driving illegal in Texas?
Yes. Under Transportation Code § 545.4251(b), reading, writing or sending a message on a portable wireless device is an offense whenever the vehicle is being operated and is not stopped. The statute took effect on 1 September 2017.
What type of misdemeanor is texting and driving in Texas?
The statute calls the basic offense “a misdemeanor punishable by a fine” of $25 to $99, or $100 to $200 after an earlier conviction. If the driver caused another person’s death or serious bodily injury, it is a Class A misdemeanor.
What is the penalty if texting while driving causes a death?
Under § 545.4251(f) the offense becomes a Class A misdemeanor, with a fine as high as $4,000 and up to a year in jail, once it is shown the driver caused another person’s death or serious bodily injury. Other laws may also be charged.
Is hands-free calling legal while driving in Texas?
Using a phone together with a hands-free device is listed as an affirmative defense to the messaging offense in § 545.4251(c)(1). A school crossing zone is stricter: § 545.425(b) allows use there only when the vehicle is stopped or the device is hands-free.
Can a Texas city have its own cell phone law for drivers?
Not for messaging, because § 545.4251(j) preempts local rules on reading, writing or sending electronic messages. Section 545.425(b-2) does mention local rules that restrict wireless device use across a jurisdiction, with signs required. In 2020 a Houston police commander said Austin and San Antonio have such ordinances.
Can I still be ticketed for texting at a red light?
The offense does not apply when the vehicle is stopped, according to the text of § 545.4251(b). Section 545.4251(a) defines only two terms, “electronic message” and “wireless communication device,” so whether a vehicle counts as stopped in a given moment is a question of fact.
How many people die from distracted driving in Texas each year?
TxDOT reported 380 people killed in 2024 crashes involving distracted driving, down 5.71 percent from 2023. That is part of the 4,150 people who died in Texas traffic crashes in 2024, according to TxDOT’s calendar year 2024 crash facts.
About the authors
Sam A. Maida, Jr.
Owner and Managing Attorney
Sam A. Maida, Jr. has represented injured Texans in the greater Houston area since the firm opened in 1993.
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Bernard G. Johnson III
Litigation Managing Attorney
Bernard G. Johnson III is a board certified trial lawyer licensed in Texas since 1996 and a graduate of South Texas College of Law.