Text messages:
Where are you?
Almost there.
Hooray! CU soon.
I…OMG!
You’re driving with your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. The problem is that the person behind, in front of or next to you isn’t. Grrrr. They’re glancing down, don’t see the light change or notice your turn signal. Or you’re at a stoplight and look in the rear view mirror to see the driver in back of you looking down with their hands off the wheel.
Grrrr again. There ought to be a law.
Maybe you’d be surprised to know there is one… but with a major caveat. In 2018, the Florida Legislature passed what became 316.305, the “Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law.” While the title seems straightforward and a ban is a ban, here’s another surprise – it’s a ban only under very specific and limited conditions. And it’s missing some critical components – the inclusion of cell phones and golf carts. More on these later.
In Florida, the ban on texting while driving can only be enforced as a secondary offense. When police see drivers doing what appears to be texting, they cannot pull them over. If, however, the driver is engaging in a primary offense like speeding or running a stop sign, then the texting driver can be stopped and charged with both the primary and secondary offenses.
It’s kind of like being caught with your hand in the cookie jar when the house law is no dessert before dinner. You argue that a cookie is a snack, not dessert, and besides, 11 a.m. is nowhere close to dinner. Both arguments miss the point.
Here’s another example where language belies fact. The Statute referred to earlier is officially titled “Wireless communication devices; prohibition,” but the content only refers to texting and doesn’t mention the other major driving distraction – talking on handheld cell phones.
We’ve all seen someone trying to turn a corner with the wheel in one hand and a phone in the other. Or looking in your rearview mirror and seeing a driver in an agitated state, gesturing and talking on the phone. It’s difficult enough navigating normal driving and roundabouts without being surrounded by distracted drivers.
So where is Florida in comparison to the rest of the states? In a single word – behind.
According to the Institute for Highway Safety, texting is a primary offense in 43 states and a secondary offense in only five. Two states have no bans. Fifteen states and D.C. ban all handheld devices. Florida is one of only five states where law enforcement cannot pull over a driver specifically for texting while driving.
An April 12, 2017 article in the Orlando Sentinel reported that Florida is the second worst state for distracted driving, with Louisiana coming in first. True, distracted driving can include a wide range of behaviors, from dealing with yelling kids in the back seat, an argument with your spouse, etc.
But it’s startling to discover, according to the Florida State Department of Motor Vehicles, that almost 50,000 crashes involved distracted driving in 2016. These accounted for more than 3,500 serious injuries and 233 deaths.
Fighting kids and spousal arguments are not limited to Floridians but being able to use handheld devices while driving is – along with four other states.
And if you think that five seconds of inattentive driving isn’t significant, that can amount to traveling the length of a football field – blindfolded.
The good news is that bills have been filed in both the Florida House (HB 45) and Senate (SB 75) that would ban the use of all handheld devices while driving. And both bills would make infractions a primary offense.
The bad news is that this has been tried before and failed.
There’s also another critical component missing from both of these bills. Golf carts are not mentioned in either bill and they should be, especially when carts are being used as a means of transportation outside of golf courses.
Meantime, there are a couple of things we can do. Contact your State senator (Dennis Baxley) and House Representative (Brett Hage) via their delegation contact email at dennis.debbie@flsenate.gov or call locally at (352) 750-3133. When the Legislature reconvenes, call again. And again.
You also can also use cell phone apps that notify callers you’re driving and unable to respond. Or you simply can switch your phone to the “do not disturb” mode.
Statistically, driving is one the most dangerous things we routinely do, even under the best of circumstances. And it doesn’t do much good if you stop using handheld devices and your fellow drivers don’t.
Passing this law should be a gimme. Making sure your representatives know you care about this will go a long way toward assuring that this time, the law passes.
Marsha Shearer is a Villager and a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com.