shawn110975
Suspended
guys read this story I always flash my highbeams to warn other oncoming cars that a speed trap is ahead of them. and its not against the LAW
Fighting for the right to flash
Driver sues after he gets $115 ticket for warning other drivers of a speed trap.
By Steve Bousquet
[email protected]
Erich Campbell thought he was just being helpful the night he flashed his headlights on the Veterans Expressway to warn drivers of a police speed trap ahead.
The Florida Highway Patrol didn't appreciate the help. Officers pulled Campbell over and gave him a $115 ticket. Flashing your lights is illegal, they said.
Claiming no such law exists, Campbell, 38, of Land O'Lakes, got angry. Now he wants to get even: He has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estimated 2,400 other drivers in Florida ticketed for the same violation over the past six years, accusing police of misinterpreting state law.
'This is a pattern, and it has mostly to do with frustrated police officers who feel they were disrespected,' Campbell said. 'When someone comes along and rats them out, they take offense to it.' Capt. Mark Welch, a spokesman for the FHP, cited a law that says 'flashing lights are prohibited on vehicles' except for turn signals. Welch said he could not comment in detail because of the pending legal case.
Campbell and his attorney, J. Marc Jones of Oviedo, say police are misinterpreting a law that's meant to ban drivers from having strobe lights in their cars or official-looking blue police lights.
On Aug. 29, soon after Campbell sued the state, the Highway Patrol ordered troopers to stop issuing tickets to motorists who use headlights as a signal to other drivers. 'You are directed to suspend enforcement action for this type of driver behavior,' said the memo from Grady Garrick, acting deputy director of patrol operations.
Campbell, a student at St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus, was driving his Toyota Tundra pickup on the Veterans Expressway in Tampa on a Monday night in December 2009 when he spotted two state trooper cruisers parked in the median. He flashed his headlights a few times to alert motorists headed in the opposite direction.
'Within 60 seconds, they had me pulled over,' Campbell said.
Hillsborough County Judge Raul Palomino dismissed the $115 ticket.
Campbell's lawsuit cites similar cases in Escambia, Osceola, Seminole and St. Lucie counties in which tickets for flashing were all dismissed by judges. 'In each of these examples,' the lawsuit claims, 'Florida courts properly found that (the law) does not prohibit the flashing of headlights as a means of communication,' which the suit calls 'a right of free speech.' It asks a circuit judge to certify the case as a class action on behalf of the other 2,400 motorists cited for headlight-flashing between 2005 and 2010. If the state loses, it could be forced to return a lot of money.
All of the defendants in the case report to either Gov. Rick Scott or Scott and the three-member Cabinet: highway safety chief Julie Jones; Col. David Brierton, chief of the highway patrol; and Ananth Prasad, secretary of the Department of Transportation.
Jones noted that a different section of law allows drivers to flash their headlights at night when they're passing another vehicle. 'Visible blinking of the headlamps,' is how the law puts it.
Asked about that apparent contradiction, the FHP's Welch said: 'This is something that's going to be dealt with in the litigation. It's not something I can comment on.' Jones said he has been besieged with calls from motorists after the case got a burst of attention on several TV stations, and it has attracted attention in out-of-the-way places, too.
In an editorial headlined 'Keep flashing legal,' the Panama City News Herald said: 'Campbell and other flashers actually encourage motorists to obey the law. Shouldn't that be FHP's only concern?' After Campbell got his ticket, he did some research online and discovered Alexis Cason, 22, of suburban Orlando, who received a similar ticket in 2005, hired the same lawyer (Jones) and won her case.
'For me, this has to do more with the principle than the cost,' Campbell said.
heres the link to the TBT article
http://tampabaytimes.fl.newsmemory.com/
I can just saY wow
Fighting for the right to flash
Driver sues after he gets $115 ticket for warning other drivers of a speed trap.
By Steve Bousquet
[email protected]
Erich Campbell thought he was just being helpful the night he flashed his headlights on the Veterans Expressway to warn drivers of a police speed trap ahead.
The Florida Highway Patrol didn't appreciate the help. Officers pulled Campbell over and gave him a $115 ticket. Flashing your lights is illegal, they said.
Claiming no such law exists, Campbell, 38, of Land O'Lakes, got angry. Now he wants to get even: He has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the estimated 2,400 other drivers in Florida ticketed for the same violation over the past six years, accusing police of misinterpreting state law.
'This is a pattern, and it has mostly to do with frustrated police officers who feel they were disrespected,' Campbell said. 'When someone comes along and rats them out, they take offense to it.' Capt. Mark Welch, a spokesman for the FHP, cited a law that says 'flashing lights are prohibited on vehicles' except for turn signals. Welch said he could not comment in detail because of the pending legal case.
Campbell and his attorney, J. Marc Jones of Oviedo, say police are misinterpreting a law that's meant to ban drivers from having strobe lights in their cars or official-looking blue police lights.
On Aug. 29, soon after Campbell sued the state, the Highway Patrol ordered troopers to stop issuing tickets to motorists who use headlights as a signal to other drivers. 'You are directed to suspend enforcement action for this type of driver behavior,' said the memo from Grady Garrick, acting deputy director of patrol operations.
Campbell, a student at St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus, was driving his Toyota Tundra pickup on the Veterans Expressway in Tampa on a Monday night in December 2009 when he spotted two state trooper cruisers parked in the median. He flashed his headlights a few times to alert motorists headed in the opposite direction.
'Within 60 seconds, they had me pulled over,' Campbell said.
Hillsborough County Judge Raul Palomino dismissed the $115 ticket.
Campbell's lawsuit cites similar cases in Escambia, Osceola, Seminole and St. Lucie counties in which tickets for flashing were all dismissed by judges. 'In each of these examples,' the lawsuit claims, 'Florida courts properly found that (the law) does not prohibit the flashing of headlights as a means of communication,' which the suit calls 'a right of free speech.' It asks a circuit judge to certify the case as a class action on behalf of the other 2,400 motorists cited for headlight-flashing between 2005 and 2010. If the state loses, it could be forced to return a lot of money.
All of the defendants in the case report to either Gov. Rick Scott or Scott and the three-member Cabinet: highway safety chief Julie Jones; Col. David Brierton, chief of the highway patrol; and Ananth Prasad, secretary of the Department of Transportation.
Jones noted that a different section of law allows drivers to flash their headlights at night when they're passing another vehicle. 'Visible blinking of the headlamps,' is how the law puts it.
Asked about that apparent contradiction, the FHP's Welch said: 'This is something that's going to be dealt with in the litigation. It's not something I can comment on.' Jones said he has been besieged with calls from motorists after the case got a burst of attention on several TV stations, and it has attracted attention in out-of-the-way places, too.
In an editorial headlined 'Keep flashing legal,' the Panama City News Herald said: 'Campbell and other flashers actually encourage motorists to obey the law. Shouldn't that be FHP's only concern?' After Campbell got his ticket, he did some research online and discovered Alexis Cason, 22, of suburban Orlando, who received a similar ticket in 2005, hired the same lawyer (Jones) and won her case.
'For me, this has to do more with the principle than the cost,' Campbell said.
heres the link to the TBT article
http://tampabaytimes.fl.newsmemory.com/
I can just saY wow
