It’s Illegal To Hang Your Face Mask From Your Car’s Rearview Mirror in New Jersey & Pennsylvania

We're required to wear face masks inside public places for the foreseeable future across our area. Many of us have already acquired multiple cloth masks to make sure we're ready as part of our new routine, but...

You'll want to avoid hanging that mask/face covering from your rearview mirror in your car because it's against the law in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Our colleague, JB Love, who works at our sister station Q98.5 in Rockford, Illinois, was the first to point this out for his state, so we followed up as we know similar laws exist in our area.

Essentially it is against the law to have anything hanging from your rearview mirror that could possibly obstruct your view. Here's the statute from the state of Pennsylvania (a similar statute is on the books in New Jersey, by the way):

No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any object or material hung from the inside rearview mirror or otherwise hung, placed or attached in such a position as to materially obstruct, obscure or impair the driver's vision through the front windshield or any manner as to constitute a safety hazard.

The nature of the fines and enforcement of these violations appears to vary, based on our Google searches. But it is definitely in your best interest to avoid this practice since the laws are officially on the books in both states.

I have already acquired multiple cloth masks that I alternate between my car and my apartment. As I clean one cloth mask I alternate to using a different one "in my growing mask rotation."

But sometimes without thinking, I find myself getting outside (to run an essential errand), without a mask in hand. I had been storing an extra mask in the car for "emergencies," but I will start putting that in my glove box.

It'll take some getting used to for all of us, but it'll become second nature (like grabbing your cell phone), I am sure.