Colorado’s new hands-free law, which bans cellphone use while driving, goes into effect Jan. 1

Triny Willerton spent six days in the hospital and says she should be dead after a distracted driver in a Ford F-150 struck her while she was cycling in Boulder County, training for the Ironman World Championship in 2018.

Now, she hopes the new Colorado hands-free law will help save lives. 

Willerton, a Boulder triathlete and advocate who helped pass the state’s hands-free law, hopes the direct consequence under the law will give a reason for drivers to pause and think before picking up their phones. 

“We have now a piece of legislature that will save lives without a doubt,” Willerton said.

Starting Jan. 1, driving with a phone in your hand in Colorado can get you a $75 fine and two points against your license. 

The new law is aimed at boosting safety on the roads by targeting a leading cause of crashes and fatalities in Colorado and a practice more than 90% of Coloradans report doing, according to the state’s Department of Transportation.

Between 2012 to 2022, 718 Coloradans were killed in distracted driving crashes and in 2021, distracted driving was the third leading cause of traffic crashes, CDOT reported.

Under the law, a police officer will be able to pull over a driver if they see them holding a phone in a way that causes them to drive carelessly. If caught more than once, a driver could face steeper fines and more license suspension points. (Commercial drivers and drivers using a phone to call 911 are exempt from the new rules.)

Using a phone with a hands-free accessory, like a phone mount or in-car speaker system, will be allowed. The law will still apply when a driver is stopped at a red light.

Currently, the hands-free law only applies to drivers younger than 18. The new law will ban holding a phone while making a call, using the GPS, watching videos or any other in-hand use.

Texting while driving is already illegal in Colorado. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine people in the U.S. are killed every day in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver, which can also include eating, talking to a passenger or looking after kids and pets. About 1 in 5 of the people who died in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2019 weren’t in cars, but were walking, riding their bikes or otherwise outside of a car, the agency said. 

After her crash in 2018, Willerton suffered from more than a dozen fractures, including a triple pelvic fracture, and other injuries.

“It was a crash that should have killed me,” Willerton said. “The driver was going over 50 miles an hour. All I had to protect me was my helmet and my bike, and I had flashing lights. I was doing absolutely everything by the book.”

The crash motivated her to start the nonprofit It Could Be Me to try to change the relationship between motorists and other road users. Her group consists of crash victims and advocates who are willing to share their survival stories to generate change. 

“I think sometimes we are overlooked because we’re still here, but yet we represent millions of people that get hit on a daily basis that have to continue with their lives. And some are not as lucky as me. I’m very lucky,” Willerton said. 

“You look at me and you don’t really see anything different with me, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t endure some horrific experience that I should never have.”

She hopes the law helps shape habits by newer drivers, who are just learning the rules of the road.

“The real change is going to be driven by the younger drivers, the ones who are learning, respecting and just coming into this new world where you have to learn the rules,” Willerton said. “And if the rule is that you cannot drive with a cellphone, you just don’t. It’s easier than to go back and fix it.”

“We know what works”

In a 2024 driving behavior study conducted by CDOT, 42% of surveyed drivers said they picked up their phone to make or answer a call and 37% picked up their phone to read a message through text or social media. 

Drivers ages 25 to 44 reported the highest rates of picking up a phone to make calls (54%), read messages (53%) and send messages (46%) in the past week, according to the study. Drivers ages 18 to 24 were slightly less likely to do each of those behaviors in the past seven days (48%, 46%, 40%) than drivers 25-44 years old.

Twenty-four states, including Colorado, have passed a law that bans holding a cellphone while driving, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, while 48 have laws in place that prohibit texting while driving.

Crash risk increases as much as four times when a driver is using a mobile phone, with no significant safety difference between when a driver is using a handheld or hands-free device, according to a report by organization Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety.

Crashes in which at least one driver was identified as being distracted imposed an economic cost of $98.2 billion in 2019, the report said. Updated for inflation alone, in 2024, the economic cost would be $120.32 billion.

The organization, made up of consumer, medical, public health, law enforcement and insurance companies also advocates for certain technologies inside cars to help prevent crashes caused by distracted driving. 

Sensors to detect distance between your car and the one in front of you and when you’re drifting out of your lane, along with blind spot detection can all deter distracted driving and should be required, the organization said in a December report. 

Driving monitor systems, which alert drivers when they become drowsy or distracted, should also be required for safer roads, the organization said. 

Willerton, who sits on Boulder’s Transportation Advisory Board, also recommends reducing speeds. After her crash near the intersection of 65th and Nelson Drive, Boulder authorities have since lowered the speed limit to 35 mph from 50, added flashing yellow lights and a sign alerting drivers of heavy turning bicycle traffic.

Willerton said the area once described by officers as the “cursed intersection” — for its high frequency of crashes — has seen a dramatic decrease in incidents. 

In a span of five days in 2017, two cyclists were killed while crossing the intersection, the Longmont Times-Call reported.

“We know what works,” Willerton said. “It’s just having the political will and the resources to do so.”