Persuasive Essay On Distracted Driving

581 Words2 Pages

Florida is not doing nearly enough to stop texting and driving. There are few laws regarding distracted driving and few programs done specifically by the state to stop texting and driving. With 3,179 deaths caused by distracted driving isn’t it about time Florida did its part to reduce the numbers.
Although texting and driving is illegal in Florida it is only punishable if a secondary offense is committed. As said in the legal examiner, “While creating texting and driving into a primary traffic offense may not reduce the number of distracted drivers, it does create tougher punishment and easier enforcement of the law.” Many people agree that distracted driving is a problem that can be stopped in part by legislation. The only people who don’t …show more content…

Statewide, law enforcement officials issued fewer than 1,800 citations in the ban's first year. This is a reprehensible number as a federal study published last year found that at any given daylight hour, 660,000 drivers nationwide are using cellphones or other electronic devices.
In Florida in 2016 as of March 214 distracted driving crashes have resulted in fatalities according to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department. If this continues there could be 856 deaths this year which would be 26% of the 2014 total. That would mean one state alone would be responsible for more than one-fourth of the distracted driving fatalities. That number is just unacceptable.
While there are several campaigns to end distracted driving most of them are national. Florida does have a notice on several of its transportation website telling drivers to not text and drive. The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department website and DMV website both have pages tucked away that have public service announcements about texting and driving, but they are hidden from major view. There is currently no state campaign or website that is specifically designed to awareness about texting and driving. Even when googling “Florida texting and driving” only two major results are websites run by the state. Compared with other states this is simply not

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