Bill aims to curb distracted driving, enhance road safety statewide
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida Senate committee has advanced a bill that seeks to make the state a hands-free driving zone.
SB 1318 passed unanimously in the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday.
Introduced by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, the bill aims to extend the current ban on texting while driving to include all handheld use of wireless communication devices. This proposal would align Florida with 30 other states, including Alabama and Georgia, which have similar laws.
During the meeting, Grall said that a crash occurs every 44 seconds in Florida, with one in seven involving a distracted driver. In 2022, over 3,000 lives were lost due to distracted driving.
The bill proposes renaming the current law to the “Florida Hands-Free Driving Law” and expanding the prohibition to cover all handheld use of wireless devices. It also introduces penalties and requires law enforcement officers to document the type of wireless device used in violations.
During the legislative discussion, advocates including Demetrius Branca, who lost his son to a distracted driver, spoke in support of the bill.
“This plague that is on our streets right now of people looking at their phones and prioritizing their emails and their text messages over the lives of the people around them, it can be prevented,” Branca said. “This is not a civil liberties debate. This is a safety thing.”
Branca worked with News 6’s Matt Austin to get the original law passed in 2019.
Representatives from AARP and the Naples Pathways Coalition also expressed concerns about public safety, noting that older adults and pedestrians are particularly vulnerable.
Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, who lost her sister to a distracted driver, voiced her support for the bill and offered to collaborate with Grall.
“I really would like to be a partner,” Davis said. “It’s an effort worth getting across the finish line in honor of all of those people we’ve lost.”
The bill’s next stop in the Florida Senate is the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development.
A companion bill in the Florida House is still waiting for its first committee hearing.
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