Persuasive Essay On Distracted Driving

In Florida, the government does not do nearly enough to discourage and prevent distracted driving. According to Distracted.gov, In 2014, "3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle accidents involving distracted drivers." This is an increase to the previous statistics in 2010 from the NHTSA, which stated that, in 2010, "3,092 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers and an estimated additional 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle accidents involving distracted drivers." In 2013, a law was issued to help discourage distracted driving as well as campaigns in 2011 and 2015, but to no avail. While others will argue that our government has done all it can to prevent the issue of distracted drivers, our citizens will continue to do. Rather …show more content…
However, for four years prior to this law, the Florida Department of Transportation had already addressed distracted driving as one of its "pressing concerns". This four year gap has led many Floridians to question whether or not the FDOT is legitimately concerned with the dangers of distracted driving. To further raise questions, the law itself is only a secondary law, meaning that in order for this violation to even be applicable, a driver must already be pulled over for a separate infraction. This is alarming considering the amount of deaths caused every year by distracted driving, and even a survey in 2010 on the people of Florida, when asked about what they thought was the most serious driving hazard, a staggering sixty-four percent of people had designated distracted driving as the most serious issue. This begs the question that, if Florida was truly serious about ending distracted driving, then why haven't they joined states like California, New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, and more, which have all placed bans on texting and driving. More importantly, who does this law truly benefit, the people or the