We see it every day: drivers who lose their focus on the road and the cars around them as they eat, put on makeup, talk on a cell phone, or worst of all — text while driving. Anyone who has been stuck behind such a driver knows that this lack of attention is not just annoying; it is inherently dangerous.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), driver distraction contributes to 25 percent of all traffic crashes reported by police, and was a factor in car crashes that killed almost 5,500 people in 2009. The NHTSA also notes that inexperienced drivers under the age of 20 have the highest percentage of distraction-related fatal crashes, and an average of 11 teenagers die each day in America from a teen-related auto accident. In fact, car accidents are the number one killer of teens in this country.
With numbers like these, it is little wonder that two dozen states already have laws that prohibit or limit the use of electronic communication devices while operating a motor vehicle, and many more are stepping up efforts to pass legislation to ban cell phone use and texting while driving. In 2010, legislation was proposed in Florida that would have banned texting while driving. Not only could this have improved public safety, but it also would have helped Florida receive federal funds.
The law proposed by Florida legislators included a complete ban on sending or receiving text messages while driving, and allowed for the use of cell phones when operating a motor vehicle only with a headset or hands-free device. Laws were also proposed that would prohibit railroad engineers and drivers of school buses and other public transportation from sending or receiving text messages on electronic communication devices while operating a public transportation vehicle.
The proposed laws were criticized because they did not allow police to stop a vehicle for the violation, but only allowed the driver to be ticketed if he or she were pulled over for another infraction. While the legislature failed to pass any of the proposed distracted driving legislation — making Florida one of only a few states that currently has no distracted driving laws in place — Representative Lori Berman sees a step in the right direction with the passage of HB 689, a bill she sponsored. The bill, awaiting the governor's signature, requires the DMV to cover the risk of talking and texting while driving in its driver's education courses and materials. The passage is not quite a victory for the representatives and senators trying to pass the stricter legislation, but Berman considers it a beginning.
