By Andrew Marra
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Last year, Dean Cannon, then-Speaker of the Florida House, was one of the
most powerful people in the state, and he believed that any efforts to outlaw
texting while driving would needlessly create “one more layer of prohibitive
behavior.” Not surprisingly, efforts to pass a texting ban failed.
Rep. Cannon is gone from the Florida Legislature, and people pushing a ban on texting while driving are newly emboldened. Maybe, at long last, this reasonable safety measure will get a fair hearing.
Florida is one of only 11 states that have yet to prohibit texting while driving, ignoring pleas from, among others, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Florida Sheriffs Association and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each bill has been blocked or died in committee. That could happen again, but two of the biggest opponents – Mr. Cannon and former state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff – are gone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 5,000 people die each year in the U.S. because of crashes caused by distracted drivers. A 2009 study concluded that truck drivers who text and drive were 29 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near-crash.
Yet key Republicans in Florida have blocked efforts to ban texting, based on overwrought libertarian notions about harm to personal freedom. While similar resistance to seat belt and helmet laws can be reasonably debated, there is no room for deliberation on an activity that so directly affects the safety of others. You may as well argue to lift the ban on drunken driving.
If legislators take up a ban in earnest, they will have to debate a key policy question: whether to make texting while driving a primary or a secondary offense. If it is made a secondary offense, drivers could be issued a ticket only if a law enforcement official had already stopped them for a different reason.
As The Post’s John Kennedy reported, Sen. Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, has filed a bill (Senate Bill 74) that would make it a primary offense. Two legislators have filed a separate set of bills that would make it a secondary offense.
However that question is resolved, legislators have no justification for further delays in imposing a texting ban on drivers. It would inhibit no recognizable freedom, and it would save lives.
Andrew Marra
for The Post Editorial Board
Rep. Cannon is gone from the Florida Legislature, and people pushing a ban on texting while driving are newly emboldened. Maybe, at long last, this reasonable safety measure will get a fair hearing.
Florida is one of only 11 states that have yet to prohibit texting while driving, ignoring pleas from, among others, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Florida Sheriffs Association and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each bill has been blocked or died in committee. That could happen again, but two of the biggest opponents – Mr. Cannon and former state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff – are gone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 5,000 people die each year in the U.S. because of crashes caused by distracted drivers. A 2009 study concluded that truck drivers who text and drive were 29 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near-crash.
Yet key Republicans in Florida have blocked efforts to ban texting, based on overwrought libertarian notions about harm to personal freedom. While similar resistance to seat belt and helmet laws can be reasonably debated, there is no room for deliberation on an activity that so directly affects the safety of others. You may as well argue to lift the ban on drunken driving.
If legislators take up a ban in earnest, they will have to debate a key policy question: whether to make texting while driving a primary or a secondary offense. If it is made a secondary offense, drivers could be issued a ticket only if a law enforcement official had already stopped them for a different reason.
As The Post’s John Kennedy reported, Sen. Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, has filed a bill (Senate Bill 74) that would make it a primary offense. Two legislators have filed a separate set of bills that would make it a secondary offense.
However that question is resolved, legislators have no justification for further delays in imposing a texting ban on drivers. It would inhibit no recognizable freedom, and it would save lives.
Andrew Marra
for The Post Editorial Board
