Tallahassee dad’s mission to make Florida hands-free prompts more than 20 counties, cities and towns across the state to pass resolutions urging legislators to act now to save lives

Tallahassee, Florida – Florida’s House and Senate have filed bills that would ban handheld use of cellphones for drivers as local officials across the state have signed resolutions urging lawmakers to make the state hands-free.

Sen. Erin Grall introduced SB 1318 and Rep. Alison Tant introduced HB 501, which would strengthen weak Florida texting-and-driving laws that do not prohibit other hand-held use of cellphones, including online shopping and engaging on social media, a loophole that makes the current law difficult to enforce.

Anthony Phoenix Branca Foundation President Demetrius Branca, a Tallahassee dad whose son Anthony was killed by a distracted driver in 2014 just one month before his 20th birthday, has traveled more than 5,500 miles since late November telling his story and asking municipalities to pass a hands-free resolution he hopes will pressure legislators to pass updated laws in a state that sees around 10 people a day die due to distracted driving.

During this awareness tour, called Driving Change for Safer Florida Streets, Branca’s testimony, along with other Hands-Free Florida coalition members, compelled 10 counties, eight cities and three towns to adopt the resolution, and several others plan to pass it in the coming weeks. Now Branca is visiting the statehouse regularly to ask legislators to move the bills.

“Year after year, similar legislation fails, and year after year, it results in more deaths and injuries on our roads,” says Branca. “These devastating crashes are preventable and must be stopped. We have commissions from 10 counties, representing around 3.8 million constituents, telling the lawmakers that the voters who elected them want them to act now to make roads safer. We need them to represent residents rather than serving their own interests.”

Last session, the Florida House ushered the Anthony Branca and Anita Neal Act, which would have required drivers in the state to remain hands-free while using cellphones, through committees with unanimous bipartisan support. However, it died when the Senate failed to move the bill through to its first committee. Some lawmakers have privately expressed concern that the new bill would infringe upon civil liberties, an argument coalition members reject.

“Hands-free laws are not like seatbelt or helmet laws; if you choose not to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, you are endangering yourself, but it does not impact other drivers,” says Steve Kiefer, chairman of The Kiefer Foundation. “Distracted driving is much more like drunk or impaired driving, which not only endangers the driver, but puts other drivers, pedestrians and bikers at risk.”

Kiefer launched his foundation in 2016 after his son Mitchel, an aspiring neurosurgeon, was killed by a distracted driver who was on Snapchat. Since then, Kiefer has successfully lobbied to get hands-free laws passed in 31 states, with the goal of implementing this lifesaving
legislation in all 50 states.

Such laws have immediate, life-saving effects. Oregon, which has the nation’s strictest hands- free laws with fines up to $1,000, is 31% less distracted than the national average and 16% less distracted than the other top states. In 2023, these laws prevented over 5,000 crashes, 2,880 injuries, 23 fatalities, and over $200 million in economic damage.