Texting-while-driving tickets are off to a slow start: report
The new Florida law which made texting while driving a primary offense hasn’t broken any citation records yet, and is off to a slow start, according to a report by WOFL.
The law went into effect at the beginning of the month and allows law enforcement officers to pull over drivers they witness texting behind the wheel.
While texting and operating a motor vehicle was already illegal, officers could only cite offenders with a secondary penalty, and couldn’t pull over a driver for using their phone unless their was another more egregious offense.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office has issued five tickets and three warnings since the law took effect on July 1, WOFL reported.
Florida Highway Patrol issued 36 warnings in the first week across the entire state, the report showed.
The numbers are not a result of drivers wising up bad habits. Instead WOFL reported that experts expect the law to pick up steam on Jan. 1.
A grace period of ease has been allotted to Florida drivers until 2020, when agencies will start issuing citations more vehemently.
Read WOFL’s full report here.
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