Texting While Driving Still Allowed In Florida
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Los Angeles area officials have banned the use of all mobile drvices by anyone at the controls of a moving train after it was discovered this week that a Metrolink engineer had been texting around the time he drove his commuter train into a freight train.
25 people were killed, many more injured. The ban was a common sense response. And Florida earlier this year had a common sense response to the growing problem when a bill was introduced into the legislature that would ban cell phone use by anyone under the age of 18.
Not exactly the teeth one would want to see in a bill since research shows that at least two-thirds of 18 to 24 year olds text while driving.
The Wireless Association says there were 75 billion text messages sent in June, up from 7.2 billion in June 2005 and an estimated 20 percent of drivers are texting while behind the wheel, according to a Nationwide Insurance study.
In the spring of 2007, a crash in suburban Rochester, New York, killed five teenage female friends when they collided with a tractor trailer. The five had just graduated from high school. All of the girls died. Police discovered the driver had been texting just before the crash.
A British study finds that texting while driving impairs driving skills more than being drunk or on drugs. In the study, 48 percent of the young drivers, up to the age of 24, admit they text while driving. And drivers tend to drive out of their lanes and drift into another more often while texting.
So we don’t need much more evidence that this is not a good thing to do. In April, Florida lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban texting while driving.
The Florida bills, one in the senate, one in the house, were tied to a bill that banned all cell phone use for drivers under the age of 18. The fine was $60.
Violators get one point against their license. It was supposed to go into effect October first but it died in committees in May. The Florida Telecommunications Industry Association finally had its way.
The industry says cell phones shouldn’t be singled out because it’s distracting to change a radio station or eat a sandwich. Does this make sense?
Sounds like parents need to get to work on a couple of fronts- at home and with their children who are behind the wheel so Florida can follow in the steps of Washington state, that banned the practice in May of last year and New Jersey which followed suit in November.
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