Man Speaks to Gainesville City and Alachua County Commissioners on Making Florida Hands Free

At the end of Alachua County–City of Gainesville joint commission meeting on Monday, commissioners heard from Demetrius Branca, who's been going around the state speaking to boards about his work to strengthen Florida’s distracted driving statute after his son’s death. 

According to a Gainesville Sun article, Branca’s son Anthony was killed by a distracted driver while riding his motorcycle to Tallahassee Community College, where he was studying journalism. 

Commissioner Ed Book introduced the commissioners to Branca and said he sent them all an email recently. Book said it was important for Branca to get the opportunity to speak and that they should motion for the local state attorney to review the statute and send it to a lobbyist. 

Ward said, “I will invite you up. Try to keep within the three minutes if you would.”

Demetrius Branca stated the following: 

“I'm here to ask you to adopt a resolution that will save lives in your community and across the state. I am a dad from Tallahassee. I am on a mission to save lives…. What we have right now is a law in place that one sheriff in central Florida called as useful as mammaries on a boar hog. He uses more colorful language than I do, but the sentiment is the same as I do. The law we currently have is specific to texting. It means that law enforcement cannot pull people over for using their phones for anything else, whether it is maps, which may be understandable, but also for Amazon shopping, watching videos, video calls, all of that stuff. Our state loses ten people a day in traffic fatalities…. In states that have adopted hands-free legislation, they have seen an immediate and measurable reduction in traffic fatalities by 10% to 25%.... 

Alachua County this year has lost 48 people and suffered over 3,000 injuries. If we could cut that by a quarter, that is 12 people and 12 families that wouldn't be suffering the trauma and the darkness that I have had to suffer, and my family that has been ripped to shreds by this careless act. 

My son Anthony was a joy. He was absolutely a joy. If you met him, you would have liked him. If you would have gotten to know him, you would have fallen in love with him. Anthony was everything a parent could hope for. He was funny, kind; he was smart, hard-working, and he was resilient and loved by his teachers, bosses, and parents, anyone who met him.

Anthony was on his way to school after working an early morning shift at a bagel shop. On his way to school, he slowed down to take a left turn, and the van behind him, driven by a grown adult man who knew better, did not stop; it hit him, ran him over in the literal sense, and then coasted to a stop. The man who killed Anthony, who made Anthony pay for his mistake, had his license suspended for six months and got a $1,000 fine.

Last year, I went to the legislature every day before work earlier this year…. I was able to usher a bill through the house sponsored by Allison Tant through all of the committees that it was assigned to with unanimous, bipartisan, unopposed support. If anything, the support on the dais there looked at me and said, ‘Why haven't we done this sooner?’ That bill got to the Senate, where it died. One person in one position decided that it wasn't important enough, and so that bill died, and as a result, we as a state continue to suffer higher traffic fatalities than other states. More people die in Florida than in any other large state.

That's why I'm here. I'm asking you, along with many of the other counties that I have visited. Collier has already passed this resolution. I've spoken in Jefferson, Leon, Gadsden, and last week I was in Santa Rosa County, where the next day a commissioner called me and said, ‘I used to ride motorcycles with my wife, and I don't anymore. How can I help you?’

I'm thrilled to hear the things that I heard today because it gives me goosebumps. I see democracy at work. I see people who are close to their communities who are willing to put forth the effort to save lives and save innocent lives…. Together we can save lives; we just need to make Florida hands-free; it's common sense.”

Book said that Branca has sent them a resolution and that it can be reviewed by the local state attorney, Brian Kramer. 

Alachua County Commissioner Ken Cornell requested a copy of the resolution that the county could use.

Branca works with an organization called Hands Free Florida and has a GoFundMe to help finance his trip.