According to the Florida Department of Transportation, distracted driving is “any mental or physical activity that takes the driver's focus off the task of driving. This includes texting while driving, which is seemingly the most popular form of distracted driving, and is also the main focus of this essay. Brief mention shall also be given to other forms of electronic communication, such as instant messaging and emailing. These shall collectively be referred to as “messaging.” Two years ago, news outlets in Florida broke the story that the state passed a law banning texting while driving. Residents celebrated, and slept easily that night, assured that their great state was doing enough to prevent distracted driving. However, this is not the …show more content…
According to the Florida Senate website, a person will be exempted from the ban if they are using their phone to receive updates on “safety-related information, including emergency, traffic, or weather alerts,” or if they are using their phone “for navigation purposes.” For example, if a person were to drive to a friend's house, they might use Google Maps to get directions, and may also receive notifications via text message about the weather, and/or any traffic issues. All of these operations are perfectly legal for drivers to perform. Now, some people may read this and wonder if there are any other ways to circumvent the ban. The answer is, unfortunately, yes. One of the ways is to simply call a person rather than text them, as calling from behind the wheel is still legal. In a few cases, texting will be absolutely necessary. How can a driver work around this? All they must do is push the brake pedal. Looking again at the Palm Beach Post article, it says that “it's still legal to thumb away at that message while stopped at a light or in a traffic jam.” This means that it is legal to text as long as the car is stationary. Perhaps this is why many DJs on the radio say to pull over before texting their