Two bills aiming to ban texting while driving in Florida passed through the state congress with flying colors. The bills must be combined before voting, but they’ve got loads of backing from both parties. This means a law against texting while driving could very well be in place by year’s end in Florida.

Florida is now just one of a hand full of states without some form of ban on texting while driving. State representatives have said the issue was best left to individual municipalities to determine what was best in their community. They also argued that a complete ban on texting while driving would only hurt the struggling Florida state business economy.

Proponents of the ban have emboldened by reported research reports which indicated that vehicle collisions caused by distracted driving have been rising significantly. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration texting while driving is now more likely to lead to a vehicle collision and traffic fatality than even drunk driving. This has motivated not only driving safety groups but also business owners, tourism specialists, educators and just about every other public service group in Florida to push legislators to pass a law banning texting while driving.

So far the two bills being pushed through the Florida senate and the Florida house of representatives still differ in a few key areas, but it seems likely they will be brought together sooner or later. And given the public support for a texting while driving ban, sooner seems a much safer bet than later.