Starting Sunday, Oregon drivers will be expected to stay off the phone while driving.

Drivers will be able to use a cellphone while driving only with a hands-free device that allows the driver to keep both hands on the steering wheel at all times. The change comes as the result of the passage of HB 2597 by the Oregon Legislature last summer.

Under the prior law, drivers were only barred from talking on the phone or texting while driving. The new law applies to all uses of a phone, including phone calls, text messages, viewing social media or the web, playing music or using navigation features.

The same law would apply to drivers using laptops, tablets or similar electronic devices but would not apply to navigation systems or other devices that are part of the vehicle or permanently affixed.

Drivers who are parked or pulled off on the side of the road will be permitted to use their phones, while those who do so while at a traffic light or while temporarily stopped for other reasons would be in violation of the law.

Citations for violating the new law start at $260 for a first-time offender.

A second-time offense or one involving a crash carries a presumptive fine of $435 and a maximum fine of $2,500.

Committing a third distracted driving offense in a 10-year span is considered a misdemeanor. The minimum fine is $2,000, but repeat offenders could face a $6,250 fine and up to one year in jail.

Repeat offenders will face steeper fines and as much as a year in jail.

Officials are hoping the changes, which stem from the passage of House Bill 2597 during the 2017 Oregon Legislature, will help officers nab reckless drivers and curb dangerous distracted driving behaviors.

Wording on the previous cellphone driving law made texting and talking on the phone the only primary distracted driving offenses, meaning if an officer spotted someone behind the wheel reading a Kindle or scrolling through Facebook, they couldn’t pull them over solely for that.

The new law makes it illegal to drive in Oregon while holding or using any electronic device, including cellphones, tablets, GPS or laptops.

Hands-free and built-in devices are allowed under the law.

Other exemptions include those making medical emergency calls; truck and bus drivers following federal rules, two-way radio use by school drivers and utility drivers in the scope of their employment; police, fire, ambulance and emergency vehicle operators during the scope of their employment; and ham radio operators.

Those convicted of a first-time distracted driving offense not contributing to a crash face a presumptive fine of $260, with a maximum fine of $1,000. Starting on Jan. 1, the court may suspend the fine for first-time offenders if the driver completes an approved distracted driving avoidance course within four months.

Although the fine would be suspended, the violation would remain on the offender’s driving record.

A second-time offense or one involving a crash carries a presumptive fine of $435 and a maximum fine of $2,500.

Committing a third distracted driving offense in a 10-year span is considered a misdemeanor. The minimum fine is $2,000, but repeat offenders could face a $6,250 fine and up to one year in jail.

At least one local law enforcement officer isn’t sold on the new law.

“I don’t see any real significant changes from what there used to be,” La Grande Police Chief Brian Harvey said. “Distracted driving is definitely a problem. It is definitely extremely hazardous. We’ve seen fatal accidents in the state and other states because of it. I think they had a well-intentioned effort to try and address that problem.”

Harvey said he felt the law was overly complex, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“It will incrementally help,” Harvey said. “But we’re a far cry from the type of code that will fix this problem.”

As always, distracted driving will continue to be a focus of enforcement patrols, he said.

Union County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Bill Miller said he hopes this law will help.

“It’s going to make it easier for (law enforcement) to make a traffic stop,” Miller said. “The word will hopefully get around that tickets are being written for this. The bottom line is, it’s unsafe. I hope the public takes heed.”

Miller said distracted driving is a huge epidemic.

“(The new law is) sending a message,” Miller said. “Previously, it was hard to prove whether (a driver was) operating a device. I would say it will get the public’s attention and mitigate it.”

In Oregon, on average, more than 11 people die in distracted driving crashes each year, and more than 2,800 are injured, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. Every one of those deaths is preventable, said sheriff’s office officials during their 2016 campaign against distracted driving.

Oregon State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Berland said the agency does not expect to have any different protocols for pulling over drivers and will “continue to do business as normal.”

“Like all new legislative changes, we will simply refresh our publications and push out updates to the new laws to our troopers in the field,” he said.

The old law’s loophole traces back to a 2015 ruling. An Oregon state trooper pulled over a Beaverton woman after spotting the tell-tale glow from an electronic device light up her face while she was driving along a Washington County road. After the trooper pulled the woman over, he said he smelled alcohol.

He performed a field sobriety test and arrested her for DUI. A judge with the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that because the trooper didn’t see her talking on the phone or pressing buttons on the phone, he did not have probable cause to pull her over. All evidence from the traffic stop was suppressed.

The court ruled the previous cellphone law doesn’t apply to those using the phone; it only affects those communicating on one.

Officers had difficulty enforcing the cellphone ban, even though studies show increasingly more people are dying in traffic accidents related to cellphone use.

Oregon Department of Transportation officials labeled the number of distracted driving-caused crashes an epidemic and said the changes would clarify the law, remove ambiguity and take into account changing technologies.

The bill replaced the term “mobile communication device” with “mobile electronic device” and banned text messaging, talking on the phone, watching, navigation, using the internet and penning emails while driving or stopped at a stoplight or sign.

Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill into law Aug. 2.

Reporters Andrew Cutler and Cherise Kaechele contributed to this story.