Tag Archive: florida traffic laws

Answering Driving Questions from Yahoo! Answers: Florida Traffic Ticket Edition

November 24, 2010

Yahoo! Answers is a great way to get your questions answered through the large community of Yahoo. In this series of articles, we will tackle questions that are asked on a weekly basis about driving in Florida. We will focus on traffic tickets for this article. Whether the question is on the ticket itself or on the process of receiving a ticket in Florida and finding out your available options, these are some of the most frequently asked questions about traffic tickets and their answers. Odds are you’ve probably come across these questions or variations on them.

Q. “Should you wait for the mail notification before you do something about your ticket?”
A. No. Any Florida driver that receives a traffic ticket, including a speeding ticket, has 30 days to select an option for satisfying their citation. One way for a driver to determine what their options are for satisfying a pending ticket is by checking the website of the county where the citation was received. Offenders can accept the points on their licenses, request a court date, or, if eligible, attend traffic school to prevent points from being assessed on their license.

Q. “When you opt for traffic school, does it remove points from your driving record? Do you still have to pay for the ticket?”
A. If the option is available for a driver after receiving a traffic ticket and they are eligible, then traffic school will prevent the points from being applied to an individual’s driving record. And yes, the driver still has to pay for the ticket.

Q. “If I get a ticket while visiting another state, will it apply in my home state?”
A. Yes. Though different states have their own DMV office, a driver’s home state DMV will be notified if a ticket has been issued from a different state. What will usually happen is the driver will be required to settle the ticket in the county where the citation was originally from. The penalties that will apply will also refer to the laws from the state where the ticket was received. Including traffic school: if the driver elects to attend traffic school to clear the points, he will have to attend one that the county where the ticket was issued will accept.

While most people want to avoid a traffic ticket, it is helpful to know a little bit about how the process works. Remember it is best to take care of a traffic ticket early. Failing to pay for a traffic ticket, or not completing the requirements of traffic school will cause your drivers license to be suspended and can cause warrants for your arrest.

Learn more about Florida online traffic school to dismiss your traffic ticket.

Graduated Driver Licensing Laws: A Comparison

April 8, 2009

A national model for Graduated Driver Licensing Programs has existed since the mid 1990s. The model provides guidelines for states to create their own GDL programs. Currently, no state follows all the guidelines, and GDL programs vary widely from state to state.

The recommended guidelines are:

Stage 1: Learner’s Permit

State sets minimum age for a learner’s permit at no younger than age 16;
Pass vision and knowledge tests, including rules of the road, signs, and signals;
Completion of basic driver training;
Licensed adult (who is at least 21 years old) required in the vehicle at all times;
All occupants must wear seat belts;
Teenage-passenger restrictions;
Zero alcohol while driving;
Permit is visually distinctive from other driver licenses;
Must remain crash and conviction free for at least six months to advance to next level;
Parental certification of 30 to 50 practice hours; and
No use of portable electronic communication and entertainment devices.

Stage 2: Intermediate (Provisional) License

Completion of Stage 1;
State sets minimum age of 16.5;
Pass a behind the wheel road test;
Completion of advanced driver education training (safe driving decision-making, risk education, etc.)-All occupants must wear seat belts;
Licensed adult required in the vehicle from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. (e.g., nighttime driving restriction);
Zero alcohol while driving;
Driver improvement actions are initiated at lower point level than for regular drivers;
Provisional license is visually distinctive from a regular license;
Teenage-passenger restrictions: not more than one teenage passenger for the first 12 months of intermediate license. Afterward, limit the number of teenage passengers to two until age 18;
Must remain crash and conviction free for at least 12 consecutive months to advance to the next stage;
Supervised practice; and
No use of portable electronic communication and entertainment devices.

Stage 3: Full Licensure

Completion of Stage 2;
State sets minimum age of 18 for lifting passenger and nighttime restrictions; and
Zero alcohol while driving.

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

To understand the range of differences among states, let’s examine the GDL laws of four states: California, Florida, Mississippi, and North Dakota.

The NHTSA recommends that the state sets the minimum age for a learner’s permit at no younger than age 16. In California, the minimum age for a learner’s permit is 15 years, six months; in Florida and Mississippi, the minimum age is 15. The minimum age in North Dakota is 14.

Before getting a license or restricted license in Florida, new drivers must have a mandatory holding period of the learner’s license of twelve months; the other three states require six months. In Mississippi, license applicants age 17 and older are exempt from the holding period. The NHTSA recommends an intermediate (provisional) stage with a minimum age of 16.5. The applicant must remain crash and conviction free for at least six months to advance from the learner’s permit to the intermediate level. They further recommend that in the intermediate license stage, the applicant must remain crash and conviction free for at least 12 consecutive months to advance to full licensure.

The NHTSA recommends parental certification of 30 to 50 practice hours of driving in the learner’s permit stage. While California and Florida each require 50 hours, 10 of which must be at night, neither Mississippi nor North Dakota require certification of any driving practice hours.

Applicants in Mississippi must be age 15 years, six months before getting a license or restricted license. Florida, North Dakota, and California require a minimum age of 16; however, in California, license applicants who do not take driver education must wait until age 18 for a license. The NHTSA recommendation is for full licensure only after completion of the intermediate licensing stage, with a minimum age of 18 for lifting passenger and nighttime restrictions. However, North Dakota does not have any passenger or nighttime restrictions, and Florida and Mississippi have only nighttime restrictions. California’s passenger restriction is that for the first 12 months, the restricted driver may have no passengers younger than 20, with limited exceptions for immediate family.

One way to improve the traffic crash figures for teenage drivers is to advocate for stronger Graduated Driver Licensing requirements in your state. In the meantime, you can reduce the risks for your own children by ensuring that they obey existing GDL laws and by implementing some of the NHTSA’s guidelines into your own house rules if your state has relatively weak GDL laws.