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Lawmakers' Plans Could Curb Texting While Driving

Kate Payne
/
WFSU News

Two Florida Republican Lawmakers are working to strengthen Florida’s texting while driving laws.

Senator Thad Altman of Cape Canaveral and Representative Keith Perry of Gainesville are pushing legislation to make texting while driving a primary offence. Altman says the plans would prevent traffic deaths.   

“Think of other disasters or incidents, aircraft disasters, where you lose two or three hundred lives. And it’s horrific. And the public is sensitive to that. But yet we’ve become insensitive to an event that claims 3,000 lives a year in just the state of Florida,” he said.

Currently, drivers can be punished for texting while driving only after being pulled over for another offence. Lawmakers have filed similar bills in recent years, but none became law.