{"id":222098,"date":"2026-04-07T15:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222098\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:34:10","slug":"distracted-driving-crashes-surge-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222098\/","title":{"rendered":"Distracted driving crashes surge in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Distracted driving is one of the most common causes of crashes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This behavior led to more than 50,000 crashes in Florida last year, with more than 300 deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida Highway Patrol troopers are now cracking down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Troopers say distracted driving is only getting worse across Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The numbers show that a crash happens every 44 seconds in Florida, and one in seven crashes involves distracted drivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida Highway safety motor vehicles say citations for texting and driving have increased 45% since 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, for three years now, a hands-free driving bill has stalled in the Florida legislature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Supporters say the bill is necessary for safer roads, but opponents argue it goes too far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The most recent effort failed in committee this session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Troopers say while phones are the biggest concern, they are far from the only distraction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">See more in the video above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Distracted driving is one of the most common causes of crashes. This behavior led to more than 50,000&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20380,56217,28,30,618,100,29,56385],"class_list":{"0":"post-222098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-distracted-drivers","9":"tag-distracted-driving","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-highway-patrol","13":"tag-florida-legislature","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-texting-and-driving"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}