Phones down and hands on the wheel.

That's the goal of the phones down Kentucky Act, that speeding through the Kentucky General Assembly this session.

Senate Bill 28 would outlaw handheld phone use while driving.

It advanced from the Senate yesterday.

Our Mackenzie Spink lays out the arguments made for and against the measure.

Under Senate Bill 28.

Using your phone while driving would be illegal, with the exceptions of using your car's digital display.

Or having your phone mounted to the dashboard, or having your phone in your hand at a stoplight.

Last year's version of the bill would have prohibited usage at a stoplight.

We had a lot of questions last year when we talked about this.

You know, can I talk?

Can I have the phone in my hand while I'm stopped at a stoplight?

A lot of people would say, we shouldn't do that.

They would.

You know, there's a lot of home in that red light because somebody is on their phone.

But this does not prohibit it.

Senator Brandon Smith voted yes on the bill, but had concerns about what it meant for law enforcement to see you on your phone.

Could surveillance footage be used to cite you under Senate Bill 28?

So let's say I'm driving and I've got my GPS or my phone maybe on my leg, and they get me for speeding, but then they can look inside my window and see that my device is there, and then do an additional ticket on top of that.

It may not be the case at all, but that's one of the questions, Mister President, that I was asking.

Senator Jimmy Higdon says the bill indicates that an officer has to see you visually.

But Smith wants the language to be tightened.

Senator Mike Wilson also supported the bill as a longtime motorcycle owner.

He says the motorcycle community has been asking for a law like this for a long time.

I happen to be coming home from a football game that my son was playing in one time, and came across where a motorcyclist had been run over.

They ran over him from behind because they were looking at their phone and they killed him.

The motorcycle license clubs have talked to me over and over again about the dangers of people being on their telephones, and we all see it all the time.

One of the no votes was Senator Jay Williams, who claimed Hands-Free Cell Use is not the answer to safer driving.

I voted no, but I am looking forward to really getting the solution for vehicles that we can have autonomous vehicles where the drivers there are driver assisted vehicles where like seatbelts, every new car has one of those and I think they have the potential to save as many lives as seatbelts have saved in the future, because that computer, that brake autonomous braking system, the collision avoidance braking system.

It never rest.

Senate Bill 28 passed 31 to 7 and is now in possession of the House.

If the lower chamber makes changes to the bill, it will come back to the Senate for a vote or further negotiation before becoming law.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.