Any type of distraction while driving can be incredibly dangerous. At Florida Accident Lawyers, we feel it’s very important that everyone pays attention while they’re driving – and that doesn’t mean partial attention, it means full attention.

What difference does a text make?

When a person is driving 40 miles per hour, they’re traveling about 58 feet every second. If a person texts for just five seconds, then their vehicle is traveling more than 290 feet. A lot can happen in those feet. The car in front of them may have stopped or someone could have walked out into the road. When the driver looks up, it’s too late to stop.

Florida has made it a secondary offense to text while driving

As of 2014, The Florida DMV considers texting while driving as a secondary offense. What does this mean? It means that if a person is caught texting while they’re driving, then they could get additional points on their license.

• The first time they get no points.
• The second time, two points are added to their primary offense (such as speeding) if they were texting in a school zone.
• If the texting while driving resulted in a crash then six points are added to their license.

With this process in place, a person could lose their license after being caught driving while texting a single time.

Points on a license aren’t the main concern with texting while driving

Consider that a study done by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that a quarter of teenagers respond to a text at least once every time they drive. This is an incredibly dangerous situation. As noted above, anyone who’s texting while driving can inevitably become distracted enough to cause serious harm.

Have you or someone you know been harmed as a result of a texting driver?

Were you involved in an auto accident in which the driver was texting? Or was someone you care about killed in an accident and you suspect the driver was texting? These are terrible situations to find yourself in but the Florida Accident Lawyers can help you.

At Gilbert & Smallman, we have decades of experience helping clients find the best possible outcome for their case. Call us today for a free consultation and find out if your case could result in reimbursement for medical costs, pain and suffering, and more.