Hands Free Archives - Granite Grok

MACDONALD: Ten Years Later

August 7, 2026 Steve MacDonald

Governor Margaret Wood Hassan signed New Hampshire’s hands-free device law in 2015. We told them it wouldn’t do what they claimed and might just make matters worse. After all, the research showed that people who got distracted still would, and people less inclined would be more often, as they tried to avoid detection. The law … Read more

JR Hoell Wins Hands Down on Hands Free Law

February 10, 2025February 10, 2025 Steve MacDonald

If you missed it, sometime contributor and friend of GraniteGrok, JR Hoell (see also NHFC, Rebuild, and so on), was ticketed for violating New Hampshire’s wholly useless and likely dangerous hands-free law. Anyone driving can attest to the accuracy of that last sentence. A lot of people ignore it. Many create more serious hazards by trying … Read more

But Is It Unconstitutional in New Hampshire?

November 12, 2023 Steve MacDonald

A Federal judge just threw out a handful of class action lawsuits against automakers. No, it wasn’t about vehicle safety. No one was physically harmed. Their information was collected without their knowledge. Texts and calls placed through vehicle hands-free systems are being harvested and stored.

New Hampshire Hands-Free Law Claims More Lives

September 30, 2019December 27, 2018 Steve MacDonald

New Hampshire has had more vehicle related-deaths since passing the Hands-free “cellphone” ban. A law restricting behavior we were told was killing our kids. More or less. Granite Stater’s using smartphones and hand-held devices were distracted. This caused crashes which resulted in fatalities. But since the law went into effect in 2015, the only change … Read more

Despite “Hands Free Law” Passage NH Highway Deaths Remain High

September 26, 2018July 28, 2018 Steve MacDonald

In 2015 New Hampshire imposed a hands-free ban, which prohibits the handling of portable electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle (with a few exceptions). Since Democrat Gov. Maggie Hassan signed it every year in July we remind everyone that the legislation was a legisaltive photo-op. A “see we’re doing something measure” with no basis in fact and would provide no real-world results.

What I didn’t predict was that it might make matters worse.