Florida Accident Attorney Blog

Has this happened to you lately? You're cruising down a Fort Lauderdale, Florida area roadway, enjoying the fine weather (and the fact that traffic isn't that congested). Just then, around the bend, a motorist coming from the opposite direction starts flashing his headlights at you.

Most U.S. drivers know what that "motorist code of the road" means: There's a Florida Highway Patrol or local police officer parked up ahead, sitting in wait for drivers breaking the speed limit and/or driving recklessly (which can indicate a Florida drunk driver behind the wheel). The officer may in fact be operating a radar gun and speed trap, recording Broward County, Fla. drivers' speeds and slapping violators with a traffic citation.

Thanks to your fellow Florida motorist's warning, you apply the brakes and roll by the speed trap, safely under the speed limit.

There's no telling how many Florida speeders have been spared traffic citations because of other drivers alerting them to law enforcement's presence. However Florida Highway Patrol frown on this practice for exactly that reason -- that heavy-footed drivers will, indeed, speed up once they pass the speed trap -- posing a safety hazard on Broward County, Fla. roads and highways.

As a Fort Lauderdale auto accident attorney knows all too well from work with clients, speeding is a leading cause of Florida traffic accidents, injury and death on our roads and highways. NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts: Florida 2004-2008 reports 553 speeding related fatalities in car accidents in Florida in 2008 (of a total 2,978 traffic deaths in Fla. that same year).

In the past, Florida Highway Patrol and other traffic enforcement agencies could ticket drivers caught signaling other motorists of a speed trap by flashing their lights. But now a Fla. driver who received a ticket for headlight flashing is challenging his charges in a Tallahassee court, suing the Florida Highway Patrol and others for violation of his First Amendment rights.

USA Today reports that the driver at the center of the controversy received a ticket for headlight-flashing near Tampa International Airport in Dec. 2009. He has, the newspaper writes, "filed a class-action lawsuit in Tallahassee against the highway patrol and other state traffic-enforcement agencies. He seeks an injunction barring law enforcement from issuing headlight-flash tickets, plus refunds and civil damages for previously cited motorists."

A spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations told the media that warning motorists of police presence and speed traps is in fact interfering with traffic law enforcement. USA Today reports that drivers in states besides Florida have challenged the validity of headlight-flashing traffic tickets and fines, given the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. It will be interesting to see how the Florida court views this traffic related case.

Source:

Headlight flashing faces test as free speech in Florida
USA Today Sept. 19, 2011

Related Web Resource:

The 2011 Florida Statutes
MOTOR VEHICLES : STATE UNIFORM TRAFFIC CONTROL
Title XXIII, Chapter 316, 316.183 Unlawful speed