The Hands-Free cell phone law took full effect in California from Tuesday onwards, under which People over the age of 18 years, will not be allowed to use the hand-held cell phones, while driving. Whereas, the under 18 drivers are strictly prohibited to use cell phones at all while driving.

According to the law, it will be unlawful to use the phone while driving, without a hands-free device, such as a headset or speaker-phone.  
California is the sixth state after Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Washington D.C., to ban the hand-held cell phone usage while driving.

This law has been adapted by California to reduce the number of road accidents. According to the California Highway Patrol statistics, 1,091 crashes in 2007 were caused by drivers using hand-held cell phones while driving and about 447 people were injured in those crashes.

After enacting the nations first Hands-Free Law back in 2001, New York has recorded a 64% reduction in traffic fatalities.

Violating the law will amount to a fine of $20 for the first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses.

According to Chapman, a lot of people don't know about the Law yet and those who know might not care, so it's going to take a few tickets to get the point across.