![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Texting-While-Driving-jpg-300x168.jpg\" "\\"Texting-While-Driving-jpg\\"")
A statewide ban on texting while driving could be dead after the Florida House amended the bill Tuesday with only three days left in the legislative session.<\/p>\nA statewide ban on texting while driving could be dead after the Florida House amended the bill Tuesday with only three days left in the legislative session.<\/p>\n
The House discussed the bill (SB 52) and adopted the amendment without voting on the bill. The amendment allows police to use drivers’ mobile phone records against them only when texting causes a crash resulting in death or personal injury.<\/p>\n
The Senate passed the bill unanimously earlier this month. If the House passes the amended bill, it must return to the Senate for that chamber to approve the new change. The legislative session ends Friday.<\/p>\n
Sen. Nancy Detert, the Venice Republican who has pushed for a ban for four years, was watching from the back of the House floor, frowning.<\/p>\n
“No one spoke to me about it,” she said, walking back to the Senate. “We made the bill as small as we possibly could to try to get it through the House. It’s a very simple bill; it should have simply passed.”<\/p>\n
Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia already have texting-while-driving bans for all drivers.<\/p>\n
Efforts to pass a ban stalled for at least four years in the face of House Republican opposition. Conservative members based their concerns on government intrusion into people’s lives.<\/p>\n
Rep. Jose R. Oliva, the Miami Lakes Republican who offered Tuesday’s amendment, said he wasn’t trying to torpedo the bill.<\/p>\n
“This only speaks to one area: your civil liberties,” he said. “From its very first (committee) stop, this was my one concern.”<\/p>\n
We need to protect ourselves from careless drivers, Oliva added, but “we can’t trample over our own rights to do it.” He thought there was still enough time to pass the bill this year.<\/p>\n
The bill allows the use of phone records in defense against a ticket, but some phone companies’ records don’t differentiate between manual texting and talk-to-text messaging.<\/p>\n
Rep. Dave Kerner, a Lake Worth Democrat and former police officer, said the change wasn’t needed: “Police will not be subpoenaing your records” for a traffic ticket.<\/p>\n
And Rep. Irv Slosberg, a Boca Raton Democrat, called the bill a “slam dunk” \u2014 without the sudden change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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