Whether you’re visiting on vacation, coming down to spend the winter months somewhere warm, or you live in Florida, it’s important to know Florida’s driving laws–including laws for phone usage while driving. Your cell phone may provide an excellent tool that helps you navigate, keep track of important data, and even stay in contact with friends and family members, but using it on the road could carry some fines and penalties you might not anticipate. Not only that, staying off your phone can increase your odds of avoiding an accident, protecting both you and your property.
Texting and Driving
In Florida, you cannot text, email, comment on social media, or perform other actions that require you to type on your phone while driving. The law notes, “manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols or other characters into a wireless communications device or while sending or reading data on such a device for the purpose of nonvoice interpersonal communication” is prohibited.
No texting and driving, under any circumstances.
If you simply must check your messages or send one out, you can take a moment to stop at a stop sign or red light and send a text. However, you should note that this action could interfere with traffic patterns and prevent you from noticing the flow of traffic around you, which could substantially raise the risk of an accident.
Prohibitions for Florida School and Work Zones
School and work zones can pose an additional hazard to drivers and others within them: in school zones, the presence of children, often outside a vehicle, means that drivers must remain more alert, while work zones often contain changing traffic patterns or workers standing outside the protection of vehicles. In these zones, drivers must pay extra attention. To help encourage attentiveness, Florida law prohibits drivers from holding a phone in their hands while passing through that area.
While “not holding the phone” certainly means no texting, emailing, or using apps while driving, drivers should also note that if they must hold their phone in their hands to carry on a conversation, they cannot use the phone at all: no holding the phone to their ears while navigating through these areas, for example. They also cannot use the phone to program GPS when passing through school zones and active work zones.
Drivers who use Bluetooth or put their conversational partners on speaker may continue their conversations as they move through school and work zones. They must, however, keep their hands off of their phones while carrying on these conversations.
Using Your Phone’s Functions Safely on Florida Roads
Using your phone safely not only helps you avoid expensive citations, it can help reduce accident risk. Try some of these tips:
Program your GPS before you set out. Do not attempt to check it, much less reprogram it, in school and work zones, where your attention needs to remain on the road.
Use Bluetooth or keep calls on speaker any time you need to carry on a conversation in the car. This keeps your hands free to respond to any potential hazards on the road.
Avoid actions that take your attention from your driving. In the space of just a few seconds, anything can occur on the road. Keep your eyes off of the phone and on the road to help reduce the risk of an accident.
Did you make a mistake, including using your phone at the wrong moment, that resulted in an accident? We can help. Our Miami Gardens collision repair shop offers a number of services that can get your car on the road again. Contact us at (305) 908-5548 or schedule an appointment today.