Articles Posted in Traffic Infractions

Jacksonville, Florida is the second worst city in the country in terms of fatal motor vehicle crashes involving teenagers over the holidays, according a recent report issued by Allstate Insurance Company. The bottom three spots were each held by Florida cities. The Allstate study looked at federal auto crash statistics and the claims for damages made to Allstate over the holidays for the last eight years. The statistics showed that teenagers were involved in more than 5,000 deadly crashes over the holidays during that time period in the U.S. Not surprisingly, fatal vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death among teenagers.

In contrast to the high number of auto accidents resulting in a death involving a teenager in Jacksonville, Florida over the years, Salt Lake City, Utah was considered the safest major city for teenage drivers with only four teenage deaths due to auto accidents over the holidays the last eight years.

Among other solutions, Allstate suggests that parents sit down with teenage drivers and discuss safe driving with them. To assist, Allstate has created a contract between the parents and teenage drivers that helps explain the issues involved with, and the importance of, safe driving.

In Jacksonville and throughout Florida, the fines for traffic violations such as speeding have noticeably increased over the years. However, a new Florida law provides that people who are caught speeding excessively will pay a much greater fine. Drivers who are caught speeding 50 miles per hour over the posted speed limit face a $1,000 fine for a first offense, $2,500 and a one year suspended license for a second offense and $5,000 and a ten year license suspension for a third offense. This is a significant increase compared to the prior law which provided for a $250 fine for anyone caught speeding by 30 miles per hour or more over the speed limit.

Although some people may think that it is rare for a person to be driving so fast in excess of the speed limit, airplanes tracked the speeds of drivers on the highway in South Florida just after this new law went into effect and found 80 people who were speeding at 50 miles per hour or more over the speed limit.

There were other laws that specifically addressed motorcycles. It is now illegal for motorcycle drivers to lift the front wheel off of the pavement. Motorcycle drivers must also attach their license tags horizontally or face a $1,000 fine as police complain about having a difficult time reading the license tags on motorcycles that may be speeding.

Gas prices have become a central issue in Jacksonville and throughout the country as they continue to rise into the summer months with no relief in sight. Americans have established a lifestyle conducive to low gas prices, and many of us are having a difficult time making adjustments to the recent inflated gas prices. Of course, gas prices in Jacksonville and through the United States are not nearly as high as they are in many other countries, like those in Europe, but that is no consolation to people here who pay twice as much or more to fill up their gas tanks than they did a year or two ago.

Police departments, whose officers spend much of their shifts driving, are also having a difficult time working the increased fuel expenses into their budgets. One city in Northwest Georgia is dealing with their budget difficulties due to higher gas prices by adding a $12 fuel surcharge to each ticket for a moving violation, such as speeding, according to an article at www.USAToday.com. The city, Holly Springs, Georgia, is doing this to avoid raising property taxes. According to the article, the Holly Springs police chief has been getting a number of calls from police chiefs and city managers from other cities inquiring about their program. This is the kind of thing that could certainly catch on and spread to other cities.

When does speeding result in more than a traffic violation and become a criminal offense that can get you arrested and thrown in jail? It is not clear, but two Jacksonville drivers were recently arrested for allegedly driving well in excess of the speed limit, according to an article on www.Firstcoastnews.com.

In Jacksonville, Florida, there is no standard or law that tells a police officer when to issue a ticket for speeding or when to arrest someone who is speeding. That decision can be made at the discretion of the particular police officer. In this case, two Jacksonville motorcycle drivers were reportedly driving 142 miles per hour in a 65 miles per hour zone on State Road 9A. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer stopped them and arrested them. The police officer decided that driving at such an excessive speed went beyond the normal conduct that is typically addressed by a speeding citation and actually became reckless conduct which placed the two motorcycle drivers and others in danger of being injured in an accident.

In Florida, the crime of vehicular homicide occurs when a driver kills another person by driving a motor vehicle in a reckless manner such that another person is likely to die or be seriously injured. One possible defense to the crime of vehicular homicide, particularly in the drag racing context, is whether the cause of death could be attributed to someone other than the defendant, for instance, the victim or another person involved in the accident.

Consider a drag race that occurred in Florida a few years ago that resulted in a conviction for vehicular homicide. The defendant was drag racing with another vehicle occupied by a driver and a passenger. Both cars sped towards a part of the road that narrowed. The other vehicle tried to speed up and pass the defendant, but the defendant also sped up and would not let the other car pass. As the two cars raced towards the narrow portion of the road, the other car lost control and the passenger died. The defendant, who managed to safely stop his car without crashing, was charged with felony vehicular homicide and racing on a highway.

The criminal defense attorney for the defendant argued that the defendant was not guilty of vehicular homicide because his actions did not cause the crash or the death. The criminal defense lawyer argued that the other driver caused the death of his passenger by speeding up and then losing control of his car. Alternatively, the criminal defense lawyer argued that the victim herself caused her death by voluntarily participating in the drag race.

Fines for traffic violations may be issued as a result of video cameras at some of the more dangerous intersections in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. The Jacksonville City Council recently approved a plan to put video cameras at ten or more intersections in Jacksonville to catch drivers who run red lights, record their license plate numbers and issue a civil infraction (ranging from $125 to $300) to the owner of the vehicle that ran the red light. There are approximately three hundred cities in the United States that use cameras at intersections to catch drivers running red lights.

According to Florida law, local governments are not allowed to use pictures from cameras installed at intersections to issue traffic tickets. However, the few Florida cities that have such cameras and the cities like Jacksonville that have plans to install the cameras intend to circumvent the law by issuing civil infractions, or violations, instead of tickets. The end result is the same- a fine for the owner of the vehicle that runs the red light.

There are several criticisms of the red light cameras. While there is evidence that these red light cameras reduce the number of drivers who run red lights to some degree and slightly reduce the number of certain types of auto accidents, there is also evidence that the cameras actually increase rear end accidents. According to an article from MSNBC.com, there are numerous reports that suggest that the red light cameras cause drivers to slam on their brakes as they approach an intersection to avoid a fine which has resulted in an increase in the number of rear end accidents at these intersections with the cameras. The Federal Highway Administration’s first study of intersections with red light cameras found that there have been 14.9% more crashes at these intersections than what would have been expected at intersections without red light cameras.