Starting October 1, 2013, \u201ctexting while driving\u201d will be banned in throughout Florida. It will be a civil offense to read or send a text, email or instant message on a smartphone while driving.<\/p>\n
In order to cite a driver for this violation, the person must be stopped for some other lawful reason. That means that if a police officer saw a driver texting, the deputy could not pull the person over and give them a ticket, unless the cop saw another infraction that gives him that authority.<\/p>\n
This is called a \u201csecondary offense\u201d because it does not allow the officer to pull you over for it, but can be an additional traffic citation. This is how Florida\u2019s seat belt law started out. Initially, law enforcement officers or Florida Highway Patrol trooper could not pull a driver over for not wearing a seat belt, but eventually the law was (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting October 1, 2013, \u201ctexting while driving\u201d will be banned in throughout Florida. It will be a civil offense to read or send a text, email or instant message on a smartphone while driving. In order to cite a driver…<\/span><\/p>\n