TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Texting and driving is banned in Florida.

However, lawmakers in Tallahassee want to take it a step further, with a hands-free bill now moving through the statehouse.

While the bill has rallied up support in the Senate, it seems to be stuck in the House. This is a similar trend that Floridians saw last session, but instead of it being stuck in the House, it was held up in the Senate, which now leaves advocates wondering: what’s the hold up?

Whether it be checking social media or looking at directions on your map, the hands-free bill seeks to ban any and all phone use in the palm of your hand while driving.

“It’s very dangerous; I know a lot of people lose their lives to distracted driving,” FSU student Kayla Kastor said.
“A lot of people around me use social media while driving, and it’s unsafe,” FSU student Kyle Gutierrez said. “I know a lot of people who have been hurt from distracted driving.”

Students, parents, and advocates are all calling out lawmakers, hoping it will kickstart the movement to get the House version across the finish line.
“You can’t avoid accountability by doing this, you can’t hide behind your chair by doing this, we know who you are, and we see what you are doing,” father Demetrius Branca said.

Branca lost his son Anthony after a distracted driver killed him in 2014. Since then, he has been a passionate fighter to get this legislation signed into law.

8 On Your Side spoke to Branca about his concerns and asked him what his message to House Committee Chairs would be. Branca shared, that the Committee Chair of the Government Operations Subcommittee needs to get their priorities straight and consider the bill this legislative session.

“It’s unfathomable,” Branca said. “I can’t imagine what kind of cold-hearted, stone-hearted person would be willing to allow people to die in droves for their own convenience because they don’t like to use a Bluetooth while they’re driving. To me that’s unconscionable, but that is what’s happening currently today in the legislature.”

Although the bill is stalled in the House, it continues to garner up support in the Senate, but that doesn’t come without pushback from lawmakers. Some Senators won’t support the current language in the bill until further restrictions are added for those who break the law.
“If we’re really going to crack down on distracted driving, we would be including things like shaving, which we’ve all seen, doing your makeup in your vehicle, eating while driving, those are all distractions,” said State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill. “Anything that takes somebody’s attention off of the road into something else in the vehicle should be a form of distracted driving and it should be dealt with at as such.”

The bill will be heard for a vote on the Senate floor Wednesday. Advocates hope it is then picked up by the House, in order for it make it to the Governor’s desk.