Cell phones — Colorado Permit Test

Cell phones on the Colorado permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

Colorado law prohibits drivers from using a mobile device while driving unless it is to contact law enforcement or the fire department, it is an emergency, or they are using a hands-free accessory.

Holding a phone takes a hand off the wheel and most of your attention off the road. The exceptions are the calls that cannot wait.

drivers from using a mobile device while driving, unless it is to contact law enforcement, the fire department, if it is an emergency or they are doing so with the use of a hands-free accessory

Colorado Driver Handbook, p.18

Colorado law prohibits the use of mobile devices for text messaging while driving unless it is to contact law enforcement or the fire department, or it is an emergency.

Texting takes your eyes off the road for several seconds at a time. At highway speed that is the length of a football field driven blind.

Colorado law also prohibits the use of mobile devices for text messaging while driving unless it is to contact law enforcement, the fire department or it is an emergency

Colorado Driver Handbook, p.18

If you drive carelessly because you were texting, or from any manual use of a mobile device, you could be fined or charged with a misdemeanor, and you should pull off the road if you need to use it.

The charge is not about the phone, it is about how you were driving because of it. Pulling over costs a minute and removes the risk entirely.

If you drive carelessly because you were texting, or any manual use of a mobile device, you could be fined or charged with a misdemeanor

Colorado Driver Handbook, p.24

On the test

When may a Colorado driver use a mobile device while driving?

With a hands-free accessory, or in an emergency. Holding a phone takes a hand off the wheel and most of your attention off the road. The exceptions are the calls that cannot wait. Colorado Driver Handbook, p.18: “drivers from using a mobile device while driving, unless it is to contact law enforcement, the fire department, if it is an emergency or they are doing so with the use of a hands-free accessory”

How this works

Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.

You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.

Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.

What it costs

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Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Colorado Driver Handbook, published by the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.