SAFE TRAVELS NC
ISSUE 20 | MAY 2026
It Seems Easy.
If no one ever had a phone in their hands while driving it would solve lots of problems.
Seems easy! But we all need a reminder sometimes, and the law can be a good one. So, if you believe in this issue, reach out to your state senators and state representatives, and ask them to pass Senate Bill 797 this legislative session.
That’s the Hands Free NC act, and it would make it illegal to drive with a phone in your hand. Thirty-one other states have a law like this, and it polls above 90% in North Carolina!
If you’re driving 55 mph, and you look down at a phone for 5 seconds, you’re effectively driving the length of a football field blindfolded.
Including the end zones. Plus another 40 feet beyond that.
“We see the aftermath,” NC State Highway Patrol Trooper Whit Efird said last month, during a distracted driving awareness event in Charlotte. “We see the mangled steel. … Distracted driving is 100% preventable.”
It is indeed. North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey gathered Efird and others, including the NC Alliance for Safe Transportation, to mark National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
Causey said distracted driving is the No. 1 issue putting upward pressure on auto insurance rates.
“This is a serious issue,” Causey said. “It deserves public attention.”
It’s difficult to say how many crashes distracted driving causes. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation put it at 17% for 2024, but since distracted driving is generally self-reported in North Carolina, the department readily acknowledges that “the data collected may not reflect the severity of this issue.”
Statistics are all over the map in other states. New Jersey puts it at 42%.
Of course, distracted driving is more than cellphone use. But everyone knows putting the phone away is an easy way to drive safer.
Tasha Hairston Springs is practically begging you. She was texting her daughter in 2012 when her vehicle smashed into an overpass. Five years of reconstructive surgeries followed. She lost part of her face and ear. She knew it was wrong, but said she “had a fear of missing out.”
“I looked down, I looked up, I had connected to an overpass,” Hairston Springs said during Causey’s event at Pearl Street Park in Charlotte. “Understand the consequences, I pray.”
Regardless of the exact numbers, “the research is really clear,” AAA public affairs director and NCAST Board Chair Tiffany Wright said during Causey’s event.
“Distraction behind the wheel is one of the most persistent and dangerous threats to our roadways,” Wright said. “Putting down the phone can literally save a life.”
Among other things, the NC Alliance for Safe Transportation supports legislation to make it illegal to drive with a cell phone in your hand. A new version of that bill, Senate Bill 797, was filed April 21.
Look up your NC senator here and tell them, please, to move SB 797, the Hands Free NC act, forward this session.
Thirty-one states have a hands free law on the books. South Carolina passed one last year. The idea polls above 90% in North Carolina, and that support cuts across political ideology.
Our pitchers: State Sen. Kevin Corbin, State Sen. Vickie Sawyer, Mark Rice of Callahan and Rice Insurance, NCAST Teen Ambassador Trey Laurore, NCAST Executive Director Joe Stewart and John Fain, son of your newsletter editor.
Safe driving advocates threw out the first pitches at Carolina Minor League Baseball games last month as part of a broader campaign to raise safe driving awareness.
We were in Kannapolis with the Cannon Ballers, Fayetteville with the Woodpeckers, Charlotte with the Knights, Greensboro with the Grasshoppers, Winston-Salem with the Dash and in Asheville with the Tourists. This was all in partnership with the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina, one of NCAST’s original and most involved partners.
So here’s six pitches from our six pitchers:
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Don't drive with a phone in your hand. Come on. You know this.
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Don't speed. It’s a factor in more than 20% of crashes.
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Wear your seatbelt. 90% of people do, 40% of the fatalities weren't.
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Don’t tailgate, and don’t brake check if someone tailgates you. Sadly, road rage has been on the rise.
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A new General Assembly session just started. Reach out to your state senator and ask them to pass Senate Bill 797, The Hands Free NC act.
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Ask your NC House member to support funding for wildlife crossings in the new state budget. The Senate included $10 million - ask House budget writers to include it too! Every 26 seconds a driver hits an animal in the United States.
You can find your state legislators, and their contact information, online here. Focus on the NC House and NC Senate.
It’s planting season, and that means more farm equipment on North Carolina roads. Remember: a little patience goes a long way toward keeping everyone safe.
Rural roads carry less than half of U.S. traffic, but they’re home to more than half of our traffic deaths.
In North Carolina alone we see more than 200 crashes a year involving farm equipment. These aren’t fender benders: Fatalities are five times more likely in crashes involving farm equipment.
So often these crashes happen when drivers misjudge speed or try to pass. Please be especially careful if you see a farmer move right. You may think they’re pulling off the road. They may be prepping for a wide left turn.
So slow down and keep your distance. Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in North Carolina. It feeds us, and it makes up more than 15% of our workforce. We can all be patient for farmers.
This message is proudly brought you to by
Ask a Trooper
“Can you remind us how to be safe on and around motorcycles?”
This month’s question comes from Annabelle in Sylva.
Got a question? Ask it in a short video and send it here.
There’s a lot to learn from this little video of a bobcat and kitten using a culvert to cross under I-40 in western North Carolina.
For starters: Think about how they never set foot on the interstate, so no one’s swerving to avoid these critters at 65 mph. That’s a big one, since crashes involving wildlife cost about $12 billion a year in the U.S.
Notice how the cats stay to the right or left of the water? Some animals don’t like getting their paws wet, so it’s important that wildlife crossings give them a way to stay dry.
See how the culvert itself is above the streambed, so the water cascades down to ground level? That means this culvert is “perched,” and that’s actually not ideal because it’s a barrier for fish, turtles and other aquatic animals that want to move upstream.
Which is all to say: Sometimes improving wildlife connectivity along our highways means building new crossings, or putting up fences to funnel animals to existing crossings. But sometimes it means improving old crossings so they work for more wildlife. (And you can include a small elevated path inside stream-level culverts so that bobcats don’t get their feet wet).
If you want to help more bobcats get where they’re going (and to protect motorists all over Western North Carolina), take the Safe Passage pledge. And please tell your lawmakers: Fund wildlife crossings!
This message is proudly brought you to by
Chart: National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse
Behind every statistic is a real person, and 100,000 work zone crashes a year is far, far too many.
If you see flashing yellow lights, slow down. If you see traffic cones, slow down. Don’t tailgate. Keep a safe following distance.
National Work Zone Awareness Week was last month. Remember to stay back to stay safe.
And thanks to Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey for featuring the issue in a recent column!
In the News
NC advocates call on Congress to approve wildlife crossing funding
- Public News Service
Two North Carolina projects win innovation awards
- Transportation Today
The deadly cost of distracted driving (VIDEO)
- Spectrum in Focus
Should you be able to hold your phone while you drive?
- News & Observer
One Last Thing…
That’s Homer and Carolina, mascots for the Charlotte Knights baseball team.
And that’s a Telly Award that Homer is holding. Specifically, it’s the Telly Award we won for a public service spot that Homer starred in on the dangers of distracted driving. We thought it would look good in Homer and Caroline’s cave, presumably in the firelight, so NCAST presented it to him.
And if you want to see (and share!) that award-winning spot, you’ll find it right here on our YouTube channel.
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NCAST | Safe Travels NC
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