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Hands-Free Florida Coalition aims to bring together businesses, industry, safety groups, law enforcement, and the public to implement effective and efficient programs to end the epidemic of distracted driving.
A coalition of groups — and families who’ve lost loved ones in auto accidents caused by distracted drivers — are teaming up to create an awareness campaign to combat an increase in crashes and fatalities caused by distracted driving.
The Just Drive – Hands-Free Florida Coalition aims to bring together businesses, industry, safety groups, law enforcement, and the public to implement effective and efficient programs to end the epidemic of distracted driving, make Florida roads safer, and save lives.
Find out information about it at Handsfreeflorida. org, and sign a pledge to put down your phone and other distractions while driving at: https://www.change.org/p/pledgeto-put-downphones-andother-distractionswhile-driving.
According to the coalition, more than 945,380 crashes were caused by distracted driving on Florida roads from 2012 to 2022. Over 33,463 serious injuries and 2,727 fatalities were attributed to distracted driving in that same period.
On June 15, 2023, sentencing of the first distracted driving case to be criminally prosecuted in Florida resulted in the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for Gregory Andriotis. He killed nine-year-old Logan Sherer, and seriously injured Logan’s parents and sister in 2016 when he was speeding and repeatedly interacting with his phone.
The Kiefer Foundation, founded in 2016 by Steve Kiefer to honor his 18-year-old son Mitchel’s legacy after he was tragically killed in an automobile crash caused by a distracted driver, is one of the driving forces behind getting laws in every state and internationally to ban driving while holding a mobile device. Georgia and Michigan have recently passed such laws, to become the 27th and 28th states to have such laws.
