New legislation has been passed banning the use of handheld devices while driving. The Henry County Sheriff’s Office joins law enforcement agencies across the state of Iowa in preparing to enforce the new distracted driving laws.

The bill, which was signed into law by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on April 2 and will go into effect on July 1, expands the existing law that bans texting while driving to any use of a handheld cellphone. Voice-activated and hands-free uses are still permitted.

Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee says that distracted driving is extremely common across the state and that he’s seen an increase in crashes because of it, “People stop and they have their phone in their hand. If they’re being discrete, it’s down by their lap, but if they’re not, it’s right in their hands right at their eye level. Some people put it on their steering wheel. You know, we’re seeing crashes all the time related to someone being distracted and just wandering off the road, and going in the ditch.”

McNamee says that hi s department is hoping to use the grace period to inform distracted drivers, “We want safer roads. So we’re going to use that six months to issue a lot of warnings and educate people on the hands free law and the reasons for it. I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t explain that our purpose is to educate people.”

The law sets a six-month grace period in which officers will provide warnings, rather than citations, when stopping drivers under the new law.