A push to ban texting-while-driving cleared a Senate budget panel Thursday, but it’s looking likely headed toward a dead end in the Florida House.

The measure (CS/SB 416) would make texting a secondary offense, allowing law enforcement to issue citations only if drivers were pulled over for another offense.

“I’m certainly not on infringing on anyone’s personal freedom, as long as it’s not affecting the person next to you,” said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who is sponsoring the legislation. “I’d like to get this done before there’s a tragedy where someone takes out all the kids at a bus stop and then the public is screaming, ‘Why didn’t you do something about it.’

“This is the opportunity to do something about it,” she said.

The proposal would impose a $30 fine for a first violation. A second offense within five years would force a $60 fine and 3 points added to a motorist’s license. Six points would be tacked on if using the device contributed to a crash.

Detert’s bill was approved 14-1 by the Senate’s budget subcommittee on transportation, tourism and economic development. The lone opponent was Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, whose district includes part of Palm Beach County, who killed a similar texting proposal two years ago, while a House committee chair.

The House this year again looks poised to end talk of text bans. House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, told the Post last month that he was wary of adding “one more layer of prohibitive behavior,” in Florida.

At the time, Cannon said, “I’ve heard evidence that eating fast food, or men fixing their ties, or women fixing their makeup, or talking to screaming kids in the back of the van — as I’ve done from time to time — is just as distracting, perhaps more so, than sending someone a text message.”

The National Transportation Safety Board last month called for states to enact a ban on non-emergency phone calls and texting by all drivers.  About 35 states ban text messaging while driving, 30 states ban cell-phone use by novice drivers, and 10 ban all use of hand-held phones, according to the NTSB.

But Cannon said he and many in Florida’s conservative, Republican-dominated Legislature are wary of steps aimed at “government-regulating private behavior.”

Some kind of ban on hand-held devices behind the wheel — usually aimed at minors — has been proposed in every regular session of the Florida Legislature since 2002. The bills have been filed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Last session, more than a dozen such bills were filed in Tallahassee — but none cleared the Legislature.

Detert said there are plenty of alternatives to texting behind the wheel. She uses a voice-to-text system for sending messages when driving. And her bill does nothing to restrict cell phone use, she added.

“I’ve tried to draw this bill as narrowly as we possibly can,” Detert said.

Texting while driving would be a new moving violation under a bill approved by a Senate committee this morning over the objections of Sen. Joe Negron, who said distracted drivers can already be punished under existing law.

Negron cast the sole “no” vote on the measure (SB 416) which would make texting and driving a secondary offense – meaning police could not ticket drivers unless they are pulled over for another reason – punishable by a minimum $30 fine and a six-point drivers license violation if it results results in an accident.

Florida law already includes a reckless driving – which carries a minimum $25 fine and can result in prison sentences –moving violation, which should cover problematic texting, Negron argued. That means law enforcement officers can now pull over “someone weaving down the road while they’re texting” and give them a ticket, said Negron, a lawyer.

And it would be difficult for authorities to determine if someone texting just because they are using an electronic device, Negron said.

“What if I was just looking at my Blackberry to get the address of where I’m driving to. Is that texting because I punched a number and something came up for me to read? What about navigation devices? To me there are legitimate uses of electronic device while you’re driving. Texting is not one of them,” Negron said.

The bill is based on a sample law provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, encouraging states to enact legislation to ban texting and driving. The Senate Communications, Energy and Public Utilities Committee approved the measure, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, by a 12-1 vote this morning.

Negron said lawmakers need to be careful before creating new crimes, which he said they have done too often in the past.

“I think if we would simply enforce the careless driving law that we already have that that would send a message to stop that,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist wants to ban texting and driving, joining a movement already underway to force drivers to forgo messaging while they’re behind the wheel.

“I think it would provide some safety for our people,” Crist told Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Julie Jones.

Jones’ legislative proposals didn’t include the ban, already sought by several lawmakers who vow passage of a ban during next year’s legislative session.

She said she’d add it to her list along with a request to beef up the state’s aggressive driving laws which no carry no penalty.

Florida law now identifies “aggressive drivers” as those who break two laws simultaneously, for example tailgating while speeding.

But there’s no additional penalty for being an aggressive driver and there’s no special identifier tagging the miscreants.

Jones wants lawmakers to change that and also force the aggressive drivers to attend drivers’ school.

Some folks might not like that, observed Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

“I bet your insurance company’s not going to like it either,” she said.

Aggressive drivers could get hit with a $120 fine under a proposal the Florida Department Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles will take to the state legislature in the spring. No telling yet what the proposal would mean for state coffers, but Miami was pegged as the "least courteous city" in a national 2008 road rage survey.

The department will present their legislative priorities on Tuesday to the Florida Cabinet. Left off the list: a ban on texting and driving. But department officials say that’s only because the issue has already captured lawmakers’ attention. “I think there are 12 pieces of legislation at last count,” department spokesman David Westberry said.

The department is also hoping lawmakers clarify that two DUI offenses in the same day count as multiple offenses. Right now, if a driver is pulled over twice in a day for drunk driving, it’s treated as one conviction.

For aggressive driving, the department wants a new category of traffic offense for “aggressive careless” driving to let law enforcement issue a single citation for multiple violations. The proposal mirrors recommendations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

More:

*Crist gives green list to ban on texting while driving

*Greenacres endorses effort to prohibit texting while driving

Florida lawmakers have jumped on the bandwagon to stop driving-while-texting in response to a national report that found that the high-tech distraction contributed to 6,000 deaths on the road last year.

State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill that would ban drivers from texting on cell phones and other hand-held devices while behind the wheel.

“Sending text messages or emails while driving places both the driver and those on the road around them in danger,” Altman said in a press release. “We need additional highway safety laws in place to address the growing use of mobile devices while driving.”

There’s nothing currently on the books to stop drivers from using cell phones while they’re behind the wheel. But Altman’s bill would ban reading, typing and sending e-mails or texts while driving. Eighteen other states already have similar laws in place and Congress is considering a similar ban.