Come summer, you could get a ticket if you’re driving and texting at the same time.
Efforts to create laws to ban texting while driving are gaining momentum in the Florida Legislature.
Robert Campbell said a trip to pick up lunch turned into a terrifying experience in a supermarket parking lot in Orlando. He said he was in the crosswalk when a driver came straight at him.
"She didn’t actually stop until she actually knocked my legs out from underneath me,” Campbell said.
He wasn’t seriously hurt, but it’s this type of unsafe driving that some lawmakers in Tallahassee fighting to change the laws.
Democratic state Sen. Darren Soto, of Orlando, recently introduced a bill that would force a driver who killed someone while texting to face a vehicular homicide charge.
“I was horrified to find out that right now there is no stated penalty for that,” Soto said.
A House transportation subcommittee voted unanimously to approve a bill that would make texting while driving a secondary offense.
A driver would have to get pulled over for something else, but could wind up with an extra $30 fine for texting.
Similar bills in the Senate are also getting unanimous approval.
Florida is one of a handful of states that don’t have a law when it comes to texting and driving.
Opponents believe it infringes on an individual’s privacy, but advocates said it’s way overdue.
"It’s common sense. If your eyes are not on the road, you are going to hit stuff,” said Glenn Victor, a spokesperson with the Florida Safety Council.
“I think it’s outrageous. It could have been a lot worse if I had been crossing the street. She was only going 5 or 10 miles an hour, but if it’s allowed to continue, people are going to die,” Campbell said.
There are currently eight distracted driving bills in the Florida Legislature.