{"id":13747,"date":"2022-04-11T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/?p=13747"},"modified":"2022-04-08T16:16:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T16:16:09","slug":"distracted-driving-awareness-month-launches-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/distracted-driving-awareness-month-launches-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Distracted Driving Awareness Month launches in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhsmv.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles<\/a> (FLHSMV) and its division of the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has launched a new campaign to coincide with this month\u2019s National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018Put it Down, Focus on Driving\u2019 initiative urges drivers to put their phones down and focus on the road. The campaign aims to educate Florida motorists on the importance of avoiding distracted driving and inform them of current laws against distracted driving.<\/p>\n<p>According to FLHSMV data, distracted driving crashes resulted in 333 fatalities in 2021 \u2013 the highest recorded in Florida in at least 8 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you get behind the wheel you only have one job, and that\u2019s to ensure you and your passengers reach your destination safely,\u201d said FLHSMV Executive Director Terry L. Rhodes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 56,000 distracted driving crashes happened last year in Florida alone, and 75% of those crashes were caused by the driver being inattentive behind the wheel. Today and every day, pledge to drive how you would want others to drive around you and your loved ones \u2013 distraction free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FLHSMV and FHP has issued the following advice to help drivers avoid being distracted by their phone behind the wheel:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are expecting a text message or need to send one, pull over and park your car in a safe location.<\/li>\n<li>Designate your passenger as your \u201cdesignated texter.\u201d Allow them access to your phone to respond to calls or messages.<\/li>\n<li>Do not engage in social media scrolling or messaging while driving.<\/li>\n<li>Struggling to not text and drive? Activate your phone\u2019s \u201cDo Not Disturb\u201d feature, or put your cell phone in the trunk, glove box, or back seat of your vehicle until you arrive at your destination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) and its division of the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has launched a new campaign to coincide with this month\u2019s National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The \u2018Put it Down, Focus on Driving\u2019 initiative urges drivers to put their phones down and focus on the road. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":13748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}