Governor Signs Kelsey’s Law Banning Cell Phone Use for Level 1 & 2 Teenage Drivers

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, Governor Rick Synder signed a new legislative act that has been named “Kelsey’s Law.” The law prohibits all new drivers on their probationary licenses from talking on their phone while driving. Violation of the law by teenagers will be a civil infraction that could cause a young driver an extension of their probationary license period. The law applies to all Level 1 license holders that can only drive with a parent, guardian, or person over 21 years old. The law also applies to Level 2 drivers that are allowed to drive with limits such as restricted hours of driving and transporting other young passengers. Kelsey’s law, Senate Bill 756, will take effect in late March 2013.The law was named in the memory of Kelsey Raffaele, a Sault Ste. Marie teenager, who died in January 2010 when she caused a serious auto accident while talking on her cellphone and trying to pass another vehicle on a two-lane highway. Kelsey’s surviving mother, father, and twin sister, Courtney, were present at the Governor’s signing ceremony in Lansing. Kelsey’s sister Courtney had lobbied members of the State House and Senate to get Kelsey’s law passed into law. Kelsey’s mother, Bonnie Raffaele, stated after the law’s signing ceremony “I know that Kelsey is up in heaven just clapping and screaming for joy over this because of the lives that can be saved through (her) tragic death.”