Posted on Nov 22, 2012

Car accidents occur everywhere, every day. However, the number of traffic fatalities in Florida is on the rise from 1,866 deaths at this point in 2011 to 1,958 fatalities in 2012. According to Governor Rick Scott, deadly traffic accidents in Tampa Bay and in seven counties have spiked, and he is wondering if distracted driving is to blame for the increase in traffic fatalities.

According to a new report, Florida has experienced a four percent increase in traffic fatalities over this last year, and the governor now wants highway safety leaders to study if texting and driving is a contributing factor.

Currently, Florida does not have a law banning texting and driving so police haven’t consistently documented whether texting has been involved in normal traffic accidents; however, investigators typically look at cell phone records in fatal crashes. Florida has seen many texting-while-driving bans proposed in the Legislature, but all of the proposed bills have died out.

Now, state officials want to know if they need to take action on texting while driving in order to make Florida safer. The Florida Highway Patrol said they are seeing this problem—texting while driving—increase, as they are improving their efforts to keep better records of documenting cases where crashes have involved texting.

The majority of states have cracked down on texting while driving. Maybe Florida will be next.

Our Tampa Bay personal injury lawyers would like to extend our condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in fatal Florida accidents this past year.

Read More About Is Texting Contributing to the Rise in Tampa Bay Traffic Fatalities?...

Damian Mallard, Esq.
Connect with me
Board Certified Sarasota Personal Injury Attorney