Put your phone down when you’re behind the wheel.
That’s the message from area law enforcement now that texting while driving becomes a primary offense in Florida starting Monday.
“They’ve got to take a little time out of their day to pull off to the side of the road, find a spot where they can focus on that phone, and then get back on the road with the phone not in their hand,” says Chuck Mulligan, a spokesman for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
He says the new law won’t change the way deputies operate very much since it’s hard to see what people are doing with their hands inside a vehicle. But they will be pulling people over if they observe a vehicle moving like the driver is distracted, and then driver will be in trouble if it turns out they were texting.
“These phones are mobile computers,” Mulligan says. “They do a great many things besides sending a text. But if you’re emailing, if you’re texting, the nomenclature of that is all the same.”
Even though texting while driving becomes a primary offense on Monday, you’ll only be given a warning through the beginning of 2020. It’s going to be a stretch of time used to educate drivers about the new law, but Mulligan says once you get pulled over you can be cited for a number of infractions as long as you were lawfully pulled over in the first place.
Another important date to remember is Oct. 1. That’s when a ban on handling your phone for any reason in school zones and construction zones goes into effect.
Outside of those areas, drivers will still be allowed to text at a stop light because law enforcement can only pull you over for texting and driving when the car is in motion. But Mulligan says the best idea is to wait to get to your destination before using your phone for any reason.
You can still get cited for impeding traffic if you are caught texting at a light after it turns green.
“The law is already in place that you shouldn’t be texting and driving while operating a motor vehicle,” Mulligan says. “What this is going to do is provide law enforcement the ability to stop you simply for that, and not a prior violation.”