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Violations Of Texting-While-Driving Not Often Enforced In Florida

Governor Ron DeSantis made texting while driving a primary traffic offense in our state back in 2019. For the first offense, it’s a $30 fine. But here’s the strange thing….

Texting Driving
Bruno Vincent/Getty Images

Governor Ron DeSantis made texting while driving a primary traffic offense in our state back in 2019.

For the first offense, it's a $30 fine. But here's the strange thing. It's a law that is not often enforced. Enforcers who are writing tickets claim the law has too many loopholes.

And there's another problem. Counties don't seem to keep an accurate count of the number of violations.

For example, Florida’s "census of texting" is missing tickets altogether from in excess of 20 of the state’s 67 sheriff’s departments and at least 56 of 155 police departments.

When further investigation was done into other departments, for instance in Broward, it was discovered that only 18 people were ticketed in one year. To add some perspective, Broward is a county of nearly 2 million people. In Alachua County, campus police at the University of Florida didn't issue any texting-while-driving citations.

When you look at last year's figures for the entire state of Florida, you'll see only 3,410 texting-while-driving citations were written.

For more on this story, click here.

Four laws that went into effect this year:

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Roxanne is a co-host on the MJ Morning Show and host of Middays on Q105 in Tampa Bay. She also hosts segments on The Current, which features local feel-good stories and health and wellness segments, and airs on five of the six Tampa-based Beasley Media Group stations. Roxanne has conducted hundreds of interviews, from athletes to Oscar winners, including Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Chadwick Boseman. She also specializes in media training, having worked with clients in the NFL, NBA and WWE for television, in print, and online. Roxanne is a published author and will be releasing a thriller novel in 2024. Her favorite thing in the world is being with her two daughters and husband. As a content creator for Q105, Roxanne writes about family activities in the Tampa Bay area, as well as reviews for local restaurants and travel.