According to this article that appeared on the website www.handsfreeinfo.com. the Florida Legislature once again adjourned without passing a single distracted driving or no texting while driving law. This is despite the fact that 71% of Florida voters approve of a law banning texting or any other form of distracted driving. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it appears that our lawmakers in Tallahassee, do not agree with the public.

The Fort Lauderdale Accident and Injury Lawyers at Berman & Tsombanakis LLC strongly support a ban on all types of distracted driving, especially texting or emailing while driving. Texting while driving clearly increases the risk of crashes as it significantly reduces a persons awareness and overall driving performance. Some scientific studies indicate that texting while driving raises the crash risk for trucker drivers by 23 times and over 6 times for car drivers. In order to send and receive a text, a driver must take their eyes off the roadway for 4.5 out of every 6 seconds. Thus, drivers who text while driving are only paying attention to the roadway 25% of the time.

Most of us have seen other drivers frantically texting while looking down at their phones. Sometimes, this happens while the car is still in motion. During that moment of texting, the driver is simply not aware of what other vehicles are doing. The most serious consequence is a car accident involving death, and at the other end, holding up traffic and causing back-ups. Clearly, everyone on the road is at risk when this occurs.
Technology has provided us with Bluetooth and other devices so we actually never need to take our eyes off the road while driving. The amount of time and energy it takes to text, to press the screen or the buttons, is considerable while you are also maneuvering thousands of pounds of steel. Furthermore, the texting driver is not aware of the possible drunk driver, or speeding driver. This puts lives at risk, including their own.
Common sense dictates that one should not be texting while driving. Is that text more important than someone’s life? Hardly.

38 other states in the U.S. have some form of laws against texting or distracted driving. It is time for the legislature to put aside petty differences and ignore pressure from whatever lobbying groups are against such legislation and pass a bill that would save lives. There must be some big money industry lobbying these lawmakers to not pass these bills. Who the source of that money is unknown to this writer. Perhaps next year the lawmakers in Tallahassee will finally do something to actually protect its citizens and pass a comprehensive ban on all forms of distracted driving including texting. Unfortunately, given the history of this group of lawmakers, The Car Accident Lawyers at the Fort Lauderdale Law Firm of Berman & Tsombanakis LLC are somewhat pessimistic that it will actually happen.