PALM BAY, Fla. – It takes no more than two minutes for Cpl. Ralphael Austin to spot a distracted driver at this busy intersection of Malabar Road.
"She was punching either letters or numbers on her phone while she was still driving," Cpl. Ralphael Austin from Palm Bay police department told News 6 reporter James Sparvero.
His department is cracking down on distracted driving by having officers on an anti-texting detail starting Tuesday through 6 p.m. Thursday.
About two dozen people were pulled over Tuesday. Police said they were paying as much attention to their phones as the road.
"I wasn't texting anybody," one woman told police.
She claims she wasn't texting, but luck for her she's getting off with only a warning.
For officers this time, it's an educational moment, hoping they won't need to pull her over ever again.
"Is is this a big problem in Palm Bay, texting and driving?" Sparvero asked Austin.
"I think it's a problem everywhere," he replied.
Because texting while driving is a secondary offense in Florida, officers had to find another reason to pull this woman over before asking her what she was doing on her phone.
Police said she was swerving too.
"It's almost at an epidemic proportion as far as the amount of drivers that are doing it, Palm Bay Police Chief Mark Renkens said.
Police Chief Mark Renkens argues that texting while driving is as dangerous as anything that's considered a primary offense and he wants the law to reflect that danger.
"Florida's Speaker of the House says that he knows many law-enforcement leaders who think the laws in the books are great right now. Are you saying you're not one of them?" Sparvero asked.
"I would like to see it from our perspective a primary offense. The bottom line is you're distracted and anything that distracts you is unsafe and we're going to propose that it becomes a primary offense," Renkens said.
News 6 anchor Matt Austin shared a story about when he was hit by someone who was texting and driving last fall.
[Share your story with News 6 on our Driving Change page. For more information, click here.]
Austin traveled to Tallahassee to speak with lawmakers in early February and spoke with Florida Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran, who told him he needed more evidence that distracted driving laws work.
“Anecdotal evidence does not get you to a great conclusion every single time,” Corcoran said. “What gets you to a great conclusion is making decisions based on the facts and the evidence.”
“Show me the data that these types of laws truly work in states, and I have a very open mind to it,” Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) said. “But the data that I’ve seen, and the states that I’ve reviewed on testing and driving, show the data is at best suspect."
"I believe texting and driving is just as dangerous as and in some cases more dangerous than a DUI. Why would a DUI be such an egregious offense and texting and driving only be a second-degree offense at a $30 fine? That doesn’t make any sense to me" Palm Bay police Chief Mark Renkens told News 6 in November.
The American Journal of Public Health did a study on texting and driving in 2010. The study was one of the first academic studies on the subject.
The study, which took place between 2002 and 2007, found that texting while driving caused the deaths of more than 16,000 Americans.
The study also noted that the U.S. Department of Transportation said 5,870 deaths in 2008 were the result of distracted driving.
Here's how to contact your lawmakers:
Look up your legislators at flsenate.gov and at myfloridahouse.gov. The search results will include a mailing address, phone number and email address for your local state senators and representatives.