The Florida legislature created this statute believing it was necessary to track whether people were driving in an aggressive manner. AGGRESSIVE CARELESS DRIVINGįlorida Statute 316.1923 is called "aggressive" careless driving. Having an attorney by your side exposes these pretexts and subjective beliefs to the judge so that you can properly fight your case. However, in order to convict you, your driving must have endangered the life, limb, or property of another. Remember, if you just pay the citation then 4 points will be assessed on your driving record and certainly cause an increase in your insurance rates.Įven if there is no crash involved, the police may cite people for careless driving based on the officer's subjective belief or merely as a pretext to stop someone. Since the officer or trooper is the prosecutor in these cases, they must depend on witnesses or drivers to help them prove the citation that they wrote. If you testify without us being present, it may ultimately end up hurting your case without you even knowing it. Having an attorney present means that you would not be required to testify. If the other driver is the only witness, good cross-examination can expose how difficult it is to prove that you were driving carelessly. However, there may be other witnesses so you can't hope to win on that alone. If the other driver does not show up for court it might be a winnable case. Therefore, when you fight a ticket for careless driving in court, usually the case can only be proven through the testimony of the witnesses or other drivers. Therefore, anything the drivers tell law enforcement at the scene of an accident is privileged and can NOT be used against them, even when fighting a traffic ticket in court. Florida Statute 316.066 clearly states that any statements made to law enforcement following an accident shall not be admissible into evidence at any civil or criminal trial. Under Florida law, anything you tell an officer at the time of the crash is privileged. They arrive at the scene, talk to the drivers and any witnesses, and then issue citation(s) to see if they can determine who is at fault. In most accident or crash cases, the officer is not present. Failure to drive in such manner shall constitute careless driving and a violation of this section. Florida statute 316.1925 defines careless driving as:Īny person operating a vehicle upon the streets or highways within the state shall drive the same in a careful and prudent manner, having regard for the width, grade, curves, corners, traffic, and all other attendant circumstances, so as not to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person. However, sometimes these citations were issued when an accident was not involved. This citation is often issued for rear-end collisions. The most common of the crash citations is probably Careless Driving. Since there were over 50,000 crashes in Tampa Bay alone in 2015, the police find a good source of revenue from both criminal and civil infractions. If a driver decides to leave the accident scene, then he is facing criminal charges. Depending on the facts of the case, this will usually result in the driver being cited for careless driving, running a red light, or failing to yield to right of way. Whenever you are involved in an accident, officers will often cite the person that they believe is at fault.
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