Florida Weird Laws

While residents and visitors to Florida must obey the state’s laws, there are also thousands of laws on the books. While many laws are necessary and lawmakers thought all of them were necessary when they made them some of Florida’s traffic laws have become outdated or even silly.

While you can have some fun while studying Florida traffic laws, these laws can affect how to determine liability after an accident in some cases. Read on below to learn about some of these weird laws in Florida.

Ten Weird Florida Traffic Laws

Many of these laws are no longer enforced and may never affect a car accident claim. However, because these are actual laws, they are still capable of being enforced and can factor into the duty of care that drivers owe to other roadway users.

1. The State’s New Hazard Light Law

Recently, Florida’s new hazard light law went into effect. The law states that drivers can use their hazard lights while driving when operating their vehicle on a highway where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour or above in heavy rain or fog.

While the new law gives drivers greater visibility in inclement weather, some law enforcement officers have an issue with it, as it can confuse other drivers.

While a vehicle’s headlights and taillights provide visibility both to the vehicle driver and other roadway users, the hazard lights are traditionally associated with another issue: a vehicle problem. Hazard lights, brake lights, and turn signals all communicate a driver’s intentions to other drivers. In the past, law enforcement officers have urged drivers to only use their hazards when something is wrong with a vehicle.

Using the four-ways while driving not only confuses other drivers who are now reluctant to pass the vehicle, but can cause a difficult distraction for them as the brighter lights of flashers reflect the water droplets and produce glare.

As one state trooper noted when the law went into effect: If someone feels that the fog is too heavy to travel in without the use of hazard lights for other drivers to see them, it is probably a good time to take a break and get off the roadway until the weather clears.

2. Prohibited Stopping, Standing, and Parking in Intersections, Crosswalks, and the Edge of Curbed Streets

The state’s traffic laws protect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users from sustaining injuries while near fast-moving vehicles. The prohibition of stopping, standing, or parking in intersections, on crosswalks, and the edges of curbed streets is one of those laws.

The law is not weird so much as it is heavy with so many provisions as to the exact distance from these areas that drivers and pedestrians must keep and the situations where the laws do, don’t, and might apply that most drivers never know if they parked in a prohibited area. It leaves much room for misinterpretation of the law by both citizens and law enforcement.

3. The Bargain Fine for Hitting Pedestrians in Sarasota

The Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port metropolitan area has been named the sixth most dangerous place in the U.S, for pedestrians, with 248 pedestrian deaths on area roadways over the past decade. Despite being part of the state that regularly features the most pedestrian deaths in the nation and the fact that a large portion of the state’s pedestrian deaths occurs in this region, sources state that the fine for hitting a pedestrian is only $78.

Pedestrian accidents may result in several different charges that, upon conviction, can add up to far more than $78 in fines. Further, if a driver is at-fault in an accident involving a pedestrian, they (generally through an auto liability insurance policy) may need to pay the victim for the expenses and impacts of the injury.

4. Driving Too Slowly Can Result in a Ticket

While most people are aware that driving over the posted speed limit can result in a traffic ticket in Florida, did you know police can also ticket you for driving too slow? According to Florida’s Uniform Traffic Control statutes, no person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede or block traffic, except when a reduced speed is necessary for the safe operation of the vehicle in compliance with the law.

While it makes sense that a car traveling far below normal traffic flow would cause issues, the law is vague as to how much slower than traffic a person can drive or what operations would necessitate the vehicle slowing down to the point where it is blocking traffic.

5. In Cape Coral, You Can’t Park Your Car in the Grass Outside Your Home

To relieve the eyesore of city residents parking vehicles on their lawns, Cape Coral’s city council passed a law recently that prohibits it. It doesn’t matter if you have friends over and you simply need temporary parking, or if it is your car. You simply can’t park on the grass. Instead, you must park vehicles in the driveway, on a paved area parallel to the driveway, or in the city-owned right-of-way.

6. You Can’t Tow a Sled with a Bicycle in Palm Bay

In Palm Bay, people cannot use their bikes to tow sleds, coasters, toy vehicles, wagons, or similar vehicles on public roads or the sidewalk. It is illegal to pull people behind the bicycle, as well. Bicycles cannot tow any of these things in any public place.

While this makes sense from a safety standpoint, it does beg the question as to the circumstances that led to the creation of the law. Was a city that very rarely ever sees a snow flurry suddenly inundated by sledders catching rides on bicycles?

7. You Must Pay Parking Fees When You Tie an Elephant to a Parking Meter

This localized law may have entered the books on Florida’s west coast during the first part of the 1900s, when John Ringling of the Ringling Brothers Circus moved the company’s winter operations to Sarasota in 1927. The area installed parking meters just a few years later. This law is not considered active and no recent record shows any fines for not paying to park an elephant.

8. Stealing a Horse Can Result in the Death Penalty

Before there were cars to use for transportation, horses were often the preferred method of travel and there are still laws in Florida that reflect that fact. For example, a Florida law calls for death by hanging if someone steals a horse.

However, the law primarily considers horses commercial livestock these days and, while horse-stealing certainly does still happen in Florida, the crime is considered grand theft, which is a class 3 felony that carries a penalty of up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in prison. Incidentally, grand auto theft is also a class 3 felony that features the same sentence.

9. Ambling and Strolling Are Prohibited in Hialeah

There is a law on the books in Florida that makes it illegal to “amble and stroll,” and these activities are a misdemeanor in Hialeah. What, exactly, constitutes ambling or strolling?

According to the dictionary, both words indicate a slow and leisurely walk. Hialeah currently has a walk score of 71, meaning the city is very walkable and residents can accomplish many errands on foot. While someone may never face criminal charges for running errands on foot at a slow or leisurely pace, the law remains in effect.

10. In Pensacola, it is illegal to give money to panhandlers on the street

The mayor of Pensacola reported that he had received phone calls daily regarding panhandlers. He felt the need to remind people that police can ticket drivers for giving money to panhandlers on the street.

However, if they wish to pull into a parking lot and give the panhandler money, the mayor said that’s on them. The mayor added that he believes if people quit giving money to panhandlers, the issue would resolve. However, he also noted that money raised from fines paid by drivers ticketing for subsidizing panhandling could fund a community center for the homeless.

How Laws Impact Liability in Personal Injury Claims

If someone injured you in an accident, even in a no-fault state like Florida, the law emphasizes fault for the accident.

To show that someone caused an accident, you must show:

• The at-fault party owed a duty of care to other roadway users. This means that they are required to take reasonable actions to protect the safety and property of others. Reasonable action in this circumstance involves driving one’s vehicle safely and under state and local traffic laws.
• There was a breach in the duty of care that occurred when the at-fault party took an action that failed to keep others on their property safe. Most often, state or local traffic laws prohibit the breach.
• This breach caused the accident that resulted in the injury, which makes the at-fault party liable for compensating the expenses and impacts incurred by their victim.

To show that someone else was legally responsible for the accident that occurred and the damage that it caused, you must be able to prove that their actions were against the law. This is true not only with laws that make perfect sense and seem entirely justified, such as laws prohibiting speeding or alcohol impairment, but also laws that seem silly or antiquated.

An elephant tied to a parking meter in downtown Sarasota may not appear in a modern-day personal injury claim, an accident arising from confusion about a driver’s intentions when they drive down the highway with their hazards on or because they stopped to give money to a panhandler certainly could.