ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Nine people are killed every day and more than a thousand people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver in the United States, according to CDC. Florida is one of only five states in which texting while driving is not a primary offense.
It is difficult for an officer to give out a citation to someone texting while driving. It's legal to sit in a car and text while driving, but if a vehicle is actually moving and the driver is texting at the same time, that's where it gets dicey.
It's a growing problem: people taking their eyes off the road and focusing on their text messages while driving.
"I've seen people text while driving, reading a book or eating their food as they are going 55 miles per hour," said St. Johns County Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Chuck Mulligan.
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Mulligan said how the law is currently written makes it challenging for deputies to spot someone actually texting on their phone.
"It really relies on a deputy or an officer to look through a window and seeing what specifically that individual is doing," Mulligan said.
On a test track, Mulligan demonstrated how easy it is for someone to cross the center line because of a distraction.
Right now, deputies can cite someone for a moving violation, even though it was caused by the distraction. But authorities have to verify the motorist was actually texting on their phone to give out a second citation.
There are three senators who are sponsoring three different bills in hopes of strengthening distracted driving laws.
SJSO wrote just nine tickets for distracted driving in 2015.
Mulligan said if a driver is traveling at 55 miles per hour and takes their eyes off the road for five seconds, then they may have covered the distance of a football field.
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