You may soon have to use your cellphone on hands-free or speaker mode while driving in Louisiana.

The Louisiana House of Representatives agreed Wednesday (05/19/21) by a vote of 77 to 20 to ban the handheld use of cellphones while driving according to KATC.

Republican Rep. Mike Huval, of Breaux Bridge, has tried for years to get a ban on handheld cellphone use while driving pushed through the House, and his persistence has finally paid off.

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The measure will now be sent to the Senate for consideration.

From KATC -

Opponents questioned whether the measure would improve safety, and they suggested the bill would put a burden on the poor by requiring them to buy new equipment.

 

It's currently illegal in Louisiana to text or post to social media while operating a vehicle. Rep. Huval wants to extend the current law to include manually using a cellphone in any way. This includes making and answering calls, web browsing, and more.

The penalties for violating the new ban, if it passes the Senate, would be a fine "of up to $100 on a first offense; up to $300 on a second offense; and up to $300 and a 30-day driver’s license suspension on third and subsequent offenses."

Read more at KATC.com.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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