Florida Traffic Law

Let's take a look at section 318.15 of the Florida Statutes. This section basically says that if a driver fails to either pay the ticket (bad), elect driving school (good), or challenge the ticket within thirty days of receipt of the citation the Clerk shall notify the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles [Department] within 10 days of such failure. Immediately after that notification the Department will issue a suspension notice to the driver that takes effect 20 days after the date of the letter. Additionally, if the driver fails to appear at a scheduled hearing the Clerk will notify the Department with the same result. What we are talking about here is the letter that people receive telling them that "Hey! Guess what - your license is suspended effective on blah, blah date! Have a great day!" What the letter fails to state clearly is that there are options to the driver to "repair" the situation. But hey, the silver lining is that they noticed yo...

Lately, there has been some push-back on red light cameras in Florida. Two high ranking legislators want Florida to join 13 other states that ban camera enforcement. This comes after a Tampa Television News channel discovered that the state had, without comment, sneakily reduced the yellow light times to the minimum allowed by a new modified law. (See Noah Pransky).  Well get ready. These camera companies are about to out spend everyone to convince legislators to keep the cameras. They call it "educating" the representatives. It is actually large donations to re-election campaign funds.  The stronger the resistance the stronger the municipalities will argue for the cameras to stay. Why not - they are making millions. That would not be so bad if the municipalities were in business. They aren't - they represent us. Apparently, they believe we want them to pick our pockets.  90% of red light cameras come from cars that miss the light by less than half a second. A fraction...

Is it any wonder that people do not trust government. We pass laws against texting because it distracts drivers while at the same time government erects hundreds of electronic signs that they want us to read as we drive so we can go look for a "Silver Alert" vehicle. When it comes to Toll Violations we are told, by a sign before each toll both, that the fine for violating the toll is $100.  I have yet to see a toll ticket that can be paid with $100. The one dollar toll ends up always being over $200 when it becomes a ticket. Not only is it deceitful it is also frustrating. Toll Violation tickets can end up costing people over $300 when the Clerk sends the ticket off to collections. There seems to be no grace-period either. The clerks send all tickets now-a-days immediately to collections upon it becoming late. I sure would like to know whose relative on the county commission got the gig with collections for the court. Pure robbery of the citizenry there. Anyhoo, the way...