ORLANDO, Fla. – Two Central Florida lawmakers unveiled new legislation to make roads safer for thousands of drivers after the death of a University of Central Florida student.
Chloe's Law is named after 21-year-old Chloe Arenas, who fell asleep and crashed into a retention pond off State Road 408 at Alafaya Trail.
There was no guardrail at the road, but Arenas' friends and family say that if there was one it would have stopped her from going into the water and possibly prevented a tragedy.
"I think if there was a guardrail in place where her crash site was maybe I wouldn't have been here talking about this," said Blanca Arenas, Chloe's mother.
State Sen. Darren Soto and Rep. Rene Plasencia have filed legislation to require the Florida Department of Transportation to erect guardrails along state roads bordering certain bodies of water where deaths from drowning have occurred.
"What happened to Chloe Arenas is a tragedy which could have been avoided. Our responsibility as lawmakers is to identify these threats to public safety and advocate on behalf of our communities. I am proud to stand with Senator Soto and sponsor this important legislation," said Plasencia in a release.
According to a release, "Chloe's Law" would apply to those areas where the fatal accidents were recorded since July 1, 2006.
"The more I researched, the more I saw how many more Floridians have died because we didn't have guardrails up," Soto said.
The legislation is expected to be taken up in the 2016 Legislative Session in January.
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