Florida’s Texting While Driving Problem

distractedDrivingWhen you’re driving on the Florida roadways you’re probably going to come across one or more of the following three people: the ones texting or talking on their phones that fail to signal or haven’t realized the light has turned green, the ones that are doing their makeup or grooming while attempting to drive, and the ones that are trying to juggle eating a meal while keeping their hands on the steering wheel. Essentially each of these are examples of distracted drivers that are considered major risks.

Last year, Florida saw over 44,000 crashes related to distracted driving per the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Among these crashes, nearly 40,000 of them lead to injuries and over 200 of them resulted in a fatality.

The biggest culprit in distracted driving remains—perhaps unsurprisingly—texting while driving, something which has been deemed a secondary offense since October 2013. What this means is that drivers must be pulled over for another offense like speeding or driving recklessly before they can be ticketed for texting. Interestingly, Florida is one of the very few states where texting while driving remains a secondary instead of primary offense. Because of this there are very few tickets written for the offense, only 3,417 last year in fact.

Will a primary anti-texting ban make the Florida roadways a little safer to navigate or will distracted drivers continue to be a problem?

This update is brought to you by Miami traffic attorney Hochman & Goldin, P.A.  We can assist you with criminal traffic violations and are ready to answer your questions. Please call 305-665-1000 to speak with a Miami expungement attorney.

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