HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The Huntsville City Council gathered Thursday evening for its second meeting of the new year and city leaders addressed the new hands-free driving ordinance that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Council members decided to vote in favor of changing how the ordinance is understood to clarify some of its existing language.

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The rewriting of the wording in the ordinance is aimed at providing a better understanding of what police officers can and cannot do when pulling someone over for a violation of the hands-free driving law.

The amended version of the ordinance means that a violation of the law itself cannot serve as probable cause for other potential violations that may have occurred.

City leaders in Huntsville wanted to ensure the public understands that a traffic stop itself could not be a way to enforce the possible violation of another state or local law.

However, in the event that a driver is pulled over for having a phone in their hand and an officer sees what appears to be drug paraphernalia during a traffic stop, that could then serve as probable cause to check for other possible violations.

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The law was put into effect to help prevent the number of distracted-related driving accidents in the city of Huntsville.

Before being passed, Huntsville City Council Member David Little brought the law to the attention of his fellow city leaders after being seriously injured in a distracted driver-related accident years ago.

Little believes the move is intended to ensure those driving throughout Huntsville know that members of law enforcement are not using the law for the sole purpose of writing tickets.

“If a police officer sees somebody driving down the road and they got a phone in their hand, they can initiate a stop for that,” Little told News 19.

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“If they smell alcohol on the breath of the person then that is another possible offense or if they smell marijuana or if they discover some other criminal activity, but you can’t use a citizen holding their phone in their hand just to try to find out something else about them”.

Huntsville Police Officers will be issuing warnings for the next five months that are part of a trial period as the city looks to educate the public about the law before it fully goes into effect.

However, starting in June tickets will start to be issued to those who violate the new hands-free driving ordinance. A breakdown of the amended version can be found here.

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