Exactly 11 months ago, CL wrote a story about the fact that Florida was among the few remaining states that place no restrictions on cell phone use in an automobile. A number of bills were filed by the legislative session in 2011 to address texting while driving, but they went nowhere.
How sad is it, then, that on the same day that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urges all states to impose total bans on cell phone use in cars except for emergencies, Florida legislators boast that there's no such law in the Sunshine State, and if they have their way, there will never be one?
Take House Speaker Dean Cannon, who makes it an issue of personal freedom. He forgets the fact that everybody who turns on the ignition and drives on a public road is involved in a social compact of sort with other motorists — an agreement that we'll all obey the rules and drive as safely as possible.
Unfortunately, accidents happen, sometimes fatal ones. The fact is that using a cell phone, and especially texting while driving, has led to even more accidents. But what say Cannon about any such law? Well, he says he's uneasy about adding ""one more layer of prohibitive behavior," and went on to tell John Kennedy with the Palm Beach Post:
"I've heard evidence that eating fast food, or men fixing their ties, or women fixing their makeup, or talking to screaming kids in the back of the van — as I've done from time to time — is just as distracting, perhaps more so, than sending someone a text message," Cannon said.
