Irresponsible elderly man at steering wheel checking messages on smart phone – smartphone – cellphone while driving car on road. (Photo by: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images)
As you may remember the “distracted driver” law currently in effect was for just work zones and amateur radio was not an exception to the law.
This last legislature session passed a new version of the state law (H 874 on March 10 2020) that applies to the whole state. The good news is that amateur radio is now exempt from the law. Here is a link to the new law (yellow highlights are mine).
While the law normally would have started July 1st the governor delayed it till 01/01/2021. Also be aware that the city of Richmond has their own law and it applies to amateur radio. It is unclear (I am not a lawyer) if the state law supersedes the city law or not. I’ll update this as we find out more information.