Tallahassee resident Demetrius Branca addresses the Hillsborough County legislative delegation in Tampa on Jan. 10, 2024. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Last Friday afternoon in Tampa, Tallahassee resident Demetrius Branca made the same pitch that he’s made more than a dozen times to county commissioners and state lawmakers around Florida since last November’s election:
A call to support a statewide “hands free” distracted driving law in the coming legislative session.
“It’s a commonsense solution to a plague that is killing a lot of people every day,” Branca told members of the Hillsborough County legislative delegation.
It was his third visit to a delegation meeting on the topic last week, following previous presentations in Pasco and Pinellas counties. Earlier, he appeared before delegations in Palm Beach and Clay counties. Branca has also attended six county commission meetings in recent months, urging those local lawmakers to support a resolution calling on the Legislature to pass such a law.
Advocates say there is a real need to tighten Florida’s distracted driving laws. Distracted driving led to the deaths of 3,308 people in the United States in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says that one out of every seven crashes that occurs in the state is a result of distracted driving and that nearly 300 people in Florida died due to distracted driving in 2023.
So far, 30 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws banning the use of handheld cellphones in autos, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
For Branca, there is no bigger issue for the Legislature to tackle this year, and it’s deeply personal. His 19-year-old son Anthony died in 2014 when a distracted driver hit him as he was riding his motorcycle to classes at what’s now known as Tallahassee State College. The tragedy “shredded” his family, he said.
‘It was like a bomb went off’
“When Anthony was killed, it was like a bomb went off,” the 52-year-old recounts. “At the time that [he] died I was engaged to a young lady. I had my two boys at home. I had a good job, making a house payment and a car payment and living the American Dream, you know?”
But Anthony’s stunning death led to a breakup between Branca and his girlfriend and “destroyed” his relationship with his other son, Isaac, he said. As part of his healing process, he immediately became involved in what would turn into a yearslong battle to achieve a measure banning texting while driving that Florida lawmakers finally passed in 2019, after a decade of similar proposals came up short.
Critics maintain it’s not nearly tough enough.
First-time offenders charged with texting while driving face a non-moving traffic violation with a base fine of $30. A second offense within five years results in a moving violation and $60 fine, plus 3 points assessed against the driver’s license. Failure to use a hands-free device in a school or work zone can bring a moving traffic violation with a base $60 fine and 3 points against the driver’s license.
An earlier Senate version of that bill would have required drivers to use wireless “hands-free” devices, but that language was ultimately removed by the bill sponsors.
Branca says that a hands-free distracted driving bill is what is required, which is what he told Tallahassee Democratic House Rep. Allison Tant late in 2023 at RedEye Coffee in Tallahassee’s Midtown area, where she holds regular open meetings with constituents.
Legislative efforts
“I knew it was going to be interesting,” Tant said, recalling how tumultuous it was getting the texting while driving law passed last decade. She sponsored the updated bill in the 2024 session after speaking with Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, who told her the next big issue his agency was contending with was auto insurance rates, which have risen in cost in part because of the high incidence of distracted driving on Florida roads.
Tant’s bill won approval in all three of the committees to which it was assigned last year but never made it to the floor for a vote by the entire House of Representatives. More galling to Branca was that a companion bill (SB 1664) was never heard in the Florida Senate.
Pinellas County Republican Nick DiCeglie chaired the Senate Transportation Committee last year. At last week’s Pinellas County delegation meeting, Branca expressed disappointment that DiCeglie never allowed the bill to move in his committee.
He’s more buoyant about the chances after addressing Hillsborough County Republican Jay Collins, who will chair the Transportation committee this year. Branca said an aide to Collins approached him after last week’s delegation meeting.
“It gave me a lot of hope because he said it was a discussion that they had and they’re looking at doing something about it, so it gave me some hope that we might be able to get something through this year,” Branca said.
“Sen. Collins is open to hearing the bill should it go through the Transportation Committee,” a legislative aide to Collins told the Phoenix this week.
‘Something’s gotta give’
Southeastern Florida Republican Erin Grall is expected to file a distracted driving law in the Senate this year. Tant will do so once again in the House. She knows first-hand how difficult a habit of accessing a cellphone while driving can be to break but said drivers simply have to.
“There are times when you feel like you’ve gotta answer the text,” she said. “You gotta make that phone call. We’re all going to have to stop because this is not safe for our children. And it’s not safe for our neighbors. It’s not safe for our visitors and for all of us on these phones, and something’s gotta give, and it’s not just a public safety issue anymore. It’s also a financial one, because our insurance costs are going through the roof. So, we’ve really reached a tipping point, I think.”
Tant expects criticism from “some people who think they have a libertarian streak and ‘whatever I do in my car is up to me.’ And that’s all well and good until you damn well run over somebody. So obviously there will be some of that for sure, but I think that we’ve got to do something because it’s just rampant. In Tallahassee, it’s just routine now to read about pedestrians’ deaths due to people on their phone.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Branca said. “I‘m concerned that something like last year could happen again, which is why I’m putting such an effort with the legislators directly instead of waiting for it to come up during session. … For whatever reason, it seems like it’s a heavy lift in this state to try to get commonsense traffic safety stuff passed.”
The regular legislative session begins on March 4.