Florida House Bill 875

AND FOR THOSE WHO DO NOTHING,YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU TOLERATE. SCREWDRIVER

OFF THE WIRE
House Bill 875 Traffic Offenses: Provides criminal penalties for person who commits moving violation that causes serious bodily injury to, or causes or contributes to death of, person operating or riding in motor vehicle or operating or riding on motorcycle; requires that person pay specified fine, serve minimum period of incarceration, & attend driver improvement course; requires court to revoke person's driver's license for specified period; provides that act does not prohibit person from being charged with, convicted of, or punished for any other violation of law.
Please Note this is a money making law for the state and does nothing for the victims.
Below is message from a lawyer friend
Thanks Rogue. I like the bill but bet it won't pass in the current form, the legislators will think the penalties are too harsh.
I mean a $1,000 fine, a year in jail and no driver's license for a year just for killing a biker, come on!

FROM DAVID, B.O.L.T of Neveda
Just playing Devils advocate for a second:
Could this bill as written punish in this scenario as well?
Rider and passenger out for a putt, lawnmower falls out of pick up truck and lands directly in front of the rider,
The rider attempts to miss the mower by swerving, ends up taking a spill and the passenger dies. The truck meanwhile continues on unknowing.
Say the passenger belongs to a prominant family, the police are feeling pressure to prosecute someone. so is it possible there story could read like this?
The "biker" was traveling to fast for the conditions, following to close, and left his lane of travel without signalling resulting in death. or serious injury.
Just sayin, Dave

From Thorsblood,
Rogue, I appreciate the sentiment regarding the penalty making money for the state. I had never considered that angle before you had brought it up recently. I wonder if you would be supportive of this kind of legislation if there were no fines involved other than court costs, but the penalties of loss of license and jailtime were still in place? Granted its small potato's compared to the death or serious injury of another, and may be of little comfort to the victims, but the consequences should increase awareness, and decrease distracted driving, no?

PAN, B.O.L.T. of Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, we passed a tri-level penalty phase for right of way violations. Depending on if there is injury, great bodily injury or death, the penalty rises in incriments up to $1,000 for death. There is also license suspension involved according to the extent of injury. Although we know these fines only serve to punish the offender, we understand that there needs to be some consequences for this type of behavior. The third part of our bill deals with education, and although we agree with the increased penalty phase, the education phase is what we were most interested in. Violators are required to attend a traffic school class involving our Share the Road Program in order to get their license reinstated. It is our hope that these classes will change the behavior of some of these offenders by educating them about our right to the roadway. This education, along with some consequences for their violation is what we hope will help reduce some of these senseless right of way crashes that are injuring and killing or brethern. Only time will tell, but it's miles ahead of the minimal fines that were in place before we got Act 466 passed. Since it's still not considered a criminal act, there is no victim assistance for the injured. Only insurance, hopefully, and in adequate amounts. We just changed our insurance laws too increasing minimum limits to $50/100/15, allowing stacking while prohibiting reducing clauses and increasing UM and UIM minimum coverage to $100/300. Of course, there is already a bill offered to eliminate this new law and return to the old limits of $25/50/10 and take away stacking while implementing reducing clauses again. I hope that doesn't undo the increased coverages we just achieved.
Pan

Thorsblood to
Tony,
I was just reading what I had written and why I included distracted driving with motorcycle awareness I don't know. Other than that I subconciously think of distracted driving in the same light as I do right of way violations.
Anyway, I like the requirement to attend a traffic school class in addition to the other penalties. Especially if its in our one room "schoolhouse" and we teach. Ahem. But, teaching them after they wiped one of us out, is too late for one of us. That training needs to be done when the license is obtained, before they run one of us over. I don't understand the meaning of the $50/100/300 acronyms, but that may because of differences in insurance laws in Wisc. and MI., we having no fault ins., with lifetime coverage through the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association. Unless of course no automobile was involved in our crash, in which case we're only covered by our initial insurance package.
Rogue to Tony
There are numerous laws already in place to cover just about every kind of situation that involves injury or death, through motor vehicle operation, many have fines, loss of license and jail time. To date they have had limited affect. One of the reasons they do Not Have Mandatory as part of them.
What is happening is that certain people because of the position in the community, money, lawyers etc get sentenced differently than others. Okay there may be slightly different circumstances but in most cases not. It is because you are connected and can get away with it if caught. Corruption in all forms of government.
The $1,000.00 fine is high but most people would come up with it to keep driving and in some cases it is a small amount to people that have a lot of money. Now taking away their drivers license is another whole issue. If a person is not going to pay attention to the operation of their vehicle they should not be allowed to operate. We as a society have made multi-tasking a daily thing. Remember back when people use to comment about some one not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time? Well many people still can’t so to speak. There are so many things they are doing while driving other than driving and there is no way to list them all.
For example let’s say a law is passed that if you are in a collision and are on a cell phone the charge Is enhanced by that. Put a party in a collision says hey I was not on the cell phone I was eating, yelling at the kids in the back seat etc. A distraction is a distraction. If you get away with it, you get away with it. Now if you are in a crash and or collision this is where the enhancement would come in. Driving distracted and or stupid would be an additional charge added to the original charge. Okay I through in the stupid part in just cause.
There is a difference in driving distracted and say DUI and or under the influence of a substance. The list can go on to other things as well such as reckless.
What is happening in my area (and many others) is that the guilty party pays a small fine and says to the court if I lose my license I will loose my job and not be able to support my family. I will have to go on welfare. Okay you can keep your license BUT you will have to go to a school about driver improvement, some times probation etc. Money, Money, Money. Though a form of hardship it also is not working. A large majority who lose their license will continue to drive and eventually a large number of them do get caught and it is back to court again and in some cases eventually jail. Putting a person in prison is another serious issue and I will discuss prison industries at another time.
Now all through this nothing has been said about the victim. You will hear people say I have insurance they will pay, well we all know insurance companies like to collect money not pay it out. If the law was to read you supported the victim and or their families should a life be taken then you are doing some thing. Something very similar to child support. Of course the state could get their piece of the action as the collecting and distributing agency.
I do not see this happening at this time but it may be something to work towards. If for starters there is a fine and other than court costs it goes to the family it is a start. Yes I know it will open the door to Are you telling me my loved ones life is only worth x amount of dollars.
What I am against is the state profiting from the hardship and misery of others.
I have dealt with the legislature for many years and in many states and one of the first things that is asked me is what is the financial impact to the state? Meaning is this going to cost or make us money. If it is not making money you have a hard way to go.
Though the penal system would love more people in the system, it is a money making situation for them and the general public is not going to go for it, and at this time not many politicians, especially if they want to get re-elected.
I do not know what the answer is but giving the state more money is not it and what we have been doing is not working either. Hopefully enough people will voice their opinion to the elected officials and some thing will get done.
In the mean time let’s not let any more bad laws get passed just so someone can say they did something even if it is wrong.
Rogue
Rogue to Tony, Rusty and Group
Rusty:
The required class for right of way offenders is ABATE's Share the Road program, taught by our member instructors. You're right, it does nothing to right the wrong that already occurred, but we also teach these classes to driver ed students in high schools around the state and also driving academies and truck and fleet schools. Hopefully, it will help change some behavior or make people think about our right of way more. The $25/50/10 I referred to means $25K minimum insurance, up to $50K for everyone injured (the victims) and $10K for property damage. You can see that is barely adequate for minor injuries only. The new law increases the minimum to $50K for one person, or up to $100K if more than one is injured, and $15K for property damage. More importantly, the Uninsured and Underinsured limits are raised to $100K for each person, or a total of $300K in the event more than one is hurt. If you have more questions, give me a shout. Mac can also answer these types of question. You're no fault and catostrophic insurance in Michigan is indeed different than most states. Minnesota has no fault up to a $4,000 threashold. After that, you can sue for additional damages. Some states, like Florida involve permanency, meaning there has to be permanent damage or injury in order to claim injury benefits.
Pan

Mark Temple to group

No Fault.
What a scam.

AND FOR THOSE WHO DO NOTHING,YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU TOLERATE. SCREWDRIVER