Wisconsin’s cell-phone-and-driving law has changed several times since this post first ran in 2016, and the version people remember (a construction-zone bill “awaiting the governor’s signature”) has been on the books for a decade. Here is what § 346.89 actually says today, what a violation costs, and why a 2026 push to make Wisconsin a full hands-free state stalled before it ever got a hearing.
Texting Is Illegal for Every Driver, Full Stop
Under § 346.89(3)(a), no driver, of any age, on any license, may compose or send a text message or email while driving. There is no carve-out for stoplights or slow traffic. The exceptions are narrow: authorized emergency vehicle operators, integrated or GPS devices, licensed amateur radio operators using dedicated equipment, and voice-operated or hands-free features the driver does not touch except to turn on or off.
A texting violation under § 346.89(1) or (3)(a) carries a forfeiture of $20 to $400 per § 346.95(2). That is a wide range, and it is written that way on purpose. A texting ticket tied to a crash, especially one involving injury, is going to sit at the high end.
Probationary License and Instruction Permit Holders: Full Ban
If you hold a probationary license under § 343.085 or an instruction permit under § 343.07, § 346.89(4)(a) bars you from using a cellular or wireless phone at all while driving, handheld or hands-free, except to report an emergency. This is the provision that actually matches the “young drivers can’t use phones at all” rule people sometimes think applies statewide. It does not. It applies only to permit and probationary license holders.
Commercial Drivers: Federal Handheld Rules Apply
Section 346.89(4)(b) bars anyone driving a commercial motor vehicle from holding a phone to talk, dialing by pressing more than one button, or reaching for a phone in a way that takes them out of a normal driving position, mirroring the federal 49 CFR 390 framework that CDL holders are already bound by. A first CDL cell-phone violation is not just a fine. It is also a documented safety violation that can affect a commercial driver’s record and employability.
The Work-Zone Ban Is Real, and It Bans More Than Texting
This is the provision the original 2016 version of this post was tracking before it became law. § 346.89(4m) now bars any driver from using a cellular or wireless phone at all, not just texting, while passing through a highway maintenance area, construction area, railroad maintenance area, utility work area, or emergency and roadside response area where workers are exposed to traffic. The only exceptions are reporting an emergency and hands-free use where the driver’s hands never touch the phone except to activate or deactivate it.
A violation of § 346.89(4), (4m), or (5) carries a forfeiture of $20 to $40 for a first offense and $50 to $100 for a second or subsequent offense within a year, under § 346.95(1). Those are the same numbers the 2016 construction-zone bill proposed, now folded into a broader statute that has been amended six times since 2009 (most recently by 2023 Wisconsin Act 159).
Dash Cameras and In-Vehicle Screens
Separately, § 346.89(5) and (6) restrict operating or watching any electronic device inside the vehicle that provides entertainment “primarily by visual means,” with exceptions for GPS, vehicle-condition and safety displays, traffic and weather information, and rear-occupant monitoring. If your dashboard infotainment system is showing video content visible to the driver, that is its own violation independent of phone use.
Wisconsin Still Doesn’t Have a Hands-Free Law, and the 2026 Attempt Died Quietly
Illinois banned handheld phone use for all drivers in 2014. Minnesota followed in 2019. Wisconsin has never joined them, and a bipartisan 2026 attempt to change that did not get far. 2025 Assembly Bill 975 and its companion 2025 Senate Bill 935, both of which would have amended § 346.89(4)(a) to prohibit phone use while driving generally rather than just for permit and probationary drivers, were introduced in late January and early February 2026. Neither bill received a committee hearing. Both were reported dead, “failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1,” on March 23, 2026, when the floorperiod closed.
This was not the first attempt. A similar hands-free bill introduced by Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine died the same way in 2020. The pattern repeats: bipartisan sponsors, no floor vote, no law. Until the legislature actually passes something, § 346.89 remains the operative statute, and it does not require hands-free use for adult drivers outside work zones, probationary licenses, and commercial vehicles.
How Phone Use Shows Up in an OWI or Traffic Stop
Cell phone use rarely arrives as a stand-alone charge in our practice. It shows up as a piece of a bigger case:
- As the reason for the stop. An officer who sees a driver looking down at a phone, drifting inside a lane, or slow to react to a light change will often cite that observation as part of the reasonable suspicion for the stop, and that observation becomes part of the probable-cause narrative for whatever comes next, including an OWI investigation. See our dedicated OWI site, racineowi.com, for how that observation evidence gets used and challenged in a Wisconsin OWI case.
- As corroboration in a crash case. After an injury crash, phone records and carrier data are a standard subpoena target. Timestamps on outgoing texts or calls get compared against the estimated time of the collision.
- As a credibility issue at trial. An officer’s body-camera and squad-camera footage typically captures whether a phone was visible on the seat, in a mount, or in the driver’s hand at the moment of the stop, and that footage is often more persuasive to a judge than an officer’s memory of what he saw through a windshield.
If you were cited for a phone violation, a related traffic offense, or an OWI that started with a phone-use stop, the analysis of what the officer actually observed, and whether that observation supports the stop at all, is where a defense starts. Our traffic-defense site, racineticket.com, handles cell-phone citations, texting tickets, and related moving violations across Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties.
The Bottom Line
Wisconsin bans texting for every driver, bans all phone use for permit and probationary drivers and in work zones, and applies federal handheld restrictions to commercial drivers. It does not ban ordinary handheld calling for adult drivers outside those situations, and a 2026 push to change that died without a hearing. If a phone-use citation or a related stop has you facing a ticket or a more serious charge, call or text 24/7 at (262) 632-5000 for a free, confidential consultation.
Sources
- § 346.89, Wisconsin Statutes (inattentive driving, texting, and cell-phone restrictions)
- § 346.95, Wisconsin Statutes (forfeitures for violating §§ 346.87 to 346.94)
- 2025 Assembly Bill 975 and 2025 Senate Bill 935, Wisconsin Legislature bill histories