Using a mobile communication device while driving
Road Traffic Act section 65B: holding and operating a phone, tablet, or similar device while the vehicle is moving, and the fines and imprisonment the section sets.
Primary source: https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/RTA1961?ProvIds=pr65B-
A driver of a vehicle who holds in his or her hand a mobile communication device and operates any of its communicative or other functions, while the vehicle is in motion on a road or in a public place, is guilty of an offence (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(1)).
On conviction the person is liable to a fine not exceeding $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(1)).
This article records that statutory text. It does not invent hands-free exceptions beyond what section 65B itself states.
Wearable devices
To avoid doubt, subsection (1) does not apply to a mobile communication device that is a wearable device (such as a smart watch), when it is worn by the driver or rider in the manner intended by the manufacturer of the wearable device (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(1A)).
Repeat offenders
Where a person who is convicted or found guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is a repeat offender, the person is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(2)).
For this section, a repeat offender is a person convicted or found guilty of the current subsection (1) offence who was previously convicted or found guilty, on at least one previous occasion, of an offence under subsection (1), or under section 65B as in force immediately before 1 February 2015, or under section 65B as in force immediately before 1 August 2020 (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(3)).
What the section defines
“Communicative function” means any of (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(3)):
- sending or receiving oral or written messages, audio phone calls or video calls;
- sending or receiving electronic documents;
- sending or receiving still or moving images;
- sending or receiving audio or video files;
- providing access to the Internet.
“Mobile communication device” means a mobile phone, or any wireless handheld device (such as a tablet computer) or wearable device (such as a smart watch) designed or capable of being used for a communicative function (SSO, Road Traffic Act 1961 s 65B(3)).
The offence in subsection (1) is holding the device and operating any of its communicative or other functions while the vehicle is in motion. This article does not turn that wording into a list of allowed dashboard mounts.
Demerit points
The Road Traffic (Driver Improvement Points System) Rules Schedule awards 12 demerit points for “Use of mobile telephone while driving” (item 42). That scheduled offence is also one of the items for which 2 additional demerit points may be awarded if it is committed in a school zone, silver zone, or Friendly Streets zone (SSO, Road Traffic (Driver Improvement Points System) Rules r 3(1A) and Schedule).
Composition amounts are not in that Schedule. They belong with the Traffic Police penalties listing, not in this statutory note.
Coverage debt
- Whether a phone in a cradle, or a device operated without being held, falls inside or outside s 65B(1) is not spelled out beyond the words “holds in his or her hand.”
- Composition fines offered by Traffic Police for this offence are not copied from the live penalties page here.