Following is the stiffer penalties bill ABATE of Florida Claims
here is theirs. We would ask you to pay close attention to the highlighted sections.
HB 875 2010
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb0875-00
Page 1 of 2
F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
A bill to be entitled 1
An act relating to traffic offenses; creating s. 318.195, 2 F.S.; providing criminal penalties for a person who 3 commits a moving violation that causes serious bodily 4 injury to, or causes or contributes to the death of, a 5 person operating or riding in a motor vehicle or operating 6 or riding on a motorcycle; requiring that the person pay a 7 specified fine, serve a minimum period of incarceration, 8 and attend a driver improvement course; requiring the 9 court to revoke the person's driver's license for a 10 specified period; providing that the act does not prohibit 11 the person from being charged with, convicted of, or 12 punished for any other violation of law; providing an 13 effective date. 14
15
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 16
17
Section 1. Section 318.195, Florida Statutes, is created 18 to read: 19
318.195 Enhanced penalties for moving violations causing 20 injury or death.— 21
(1) A person who commits a moving violation that causes 22 serious bodily injury, as defined in s. 316.1933, to a person 23 operating or riding in a motor vehicle or operating or riding on 24 a
motorcycle commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, 25 punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, and, upon 26 conviction, shall pay a fine of not less than $500, serve a
minimum of 30 days of incarceration, and attend a driver 28
HB 875 2010
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb0875-00
Page 2 of 2
F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
improvement course. The court shall also revoke the person's 29 driver's license for not less than 30 days. 30
(2) A person who commits a moving violation that causes or 31 contributes to the death of a person operating or riding in a 32 motor vehicle or operating or riding on a motorcycle commits a 33 misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s.
34 775.082 or s. 775.083, and, upon conviction, shall pay a fine of 35 not less than $1,000, serve a minimum of 90 days of 36 incarceration, and, in lieu of the requirements of s. 322.0261, 37 attend an advanced driver improvement course. The court shall 38 also revoke the person's driver's license for not less than 1 39 year. 40
(3) This section does not prohibit a person from being 41 charged with, convicted of, or punished for any other violation 42 of law. 43
Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2010.
If you will read under the reckless driving statute currently in law that can be found
here, You will see the following:
a) Upon a first conviction, by imprisonment for a period of not more than 90 days or by fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(b) On a second or subsequent conviction, by imprisonment for not more than 6 months or by a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(3) Any person:
(a) Who is in violation of subsection (1);
(b) Who operates a vehicle; and
(c) Who, by reason of such operation, causes:
1. Damage to the property or person of another commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
2. Serious bodily injury to another commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. The term "serious bodily injury" means an injury to another person, which consists of a physical condition that creates a substantial risk of death, serious personal disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
Note the similarities as to what ABATE of Florida is proposing and what is already in law.
You must read these statutes carefully and ask yourself is ABATE increasing or decreasing penalties.
We noted them because we are familiar with another Florida statute:
316.1923 Aggressive careless driving.
How is it that we are familiar with Aggressive careless driving statute and the highlighted numbers.
Because last year when Doc's bill failed because he failed to write the bill properly, those of us who he accused of killing the bill met with Representative Evers on 4-7-09 and provided him with a rough draft of a bill. Although the following is not an exact copy (we gave that to Rep Evers,) it is similar:
After consulting with various departments we have made changes to the law as previously posted. This was done to insure that we did not conflict with existing law. We believe this should be the final revision, further revisions may be made to language for legal compliance as long as it does not change the intent.
316.192 Reckless driving.--
(1)(a) Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.
(b) Fleeing a law enforcement officer in a motor vehicle is reckless driving per se.
ADDITION:
(c ) Driving while willfully and wantonly distracted and/or willfully and wantonly using a distracting device resulting in the violation of any the following:
(1) Exceeding the posted speed as defined in 316.183, 316.185, 316.187, 316.189, 316.1893, and 316.1895.
(2) Unsafely or improperly changing lanes as defined in s.316.085.
(3) Following another vehicle too closely as defined in s. 316.0895(1).
(4) Failing to yield the right-of-way as defined in s. 316.079, s. 316.0815, or s. 316.123.
(5) Improperly passing as defined in s. 316.083, s. 316.084, or s. 316.085.
(6) Violating traffic control and signal devices as defined in ss. 316.074 and 316.075.
is reckless driving per se.
(2)Except as provided in subsection (3), any person convicted of reckless driving shall be punished:
(a) Upon a first conviction, by imprisonment for a period of not more than 90 days or by fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(b) On a second or subsequent conviction, by imprisonment for not more than 6 months or by a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(3) Any person:
(a) Who is in violation of subsection (1);
(b) Who operates a vehicle; and
(c) Who, by reason of such operation, causes:
1. Damage to the property or person of another commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 and s. 775.083 (ADDITION: which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than 30 days imprisonment.)
2. Serious bodily injury to another commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.0 84 (ADDITION which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than 6 months imprisonment.)
The term "serious bodily injury" means an injury to another person, which consists of a physical condition that creates a substantial risk of death, serious personal disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
ADDITION:
3. The death of another person commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084 which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than one year imprisonment.
Representative looked over the draft we gave him and said, "ya know, this could work". Note all the references to the 700 numbers. The problem was to get jail time while not having the charge raised to felony level which we knew the senate would not pass.
Now if you really want to see how eerie this gets, go to the site
Stop Florida Highway Killings now where the following proposed bill is posted as follows:
316.192 Reckless driving.--
(1)(a) Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.
(b) Fleeing a law enforcement officer in a motor vehicle is reckless driving per se.
ADDITION:
(c ) Driving20while willfully and wantonly distracted and/or willfully and wantonly using a distracting device proven to be distracting resulting in the violation any of the following:
(1) Exceeding the posted speed as defined in ss. 322.27(3)(d)5.b 316.183, 316.185, 316.187, 316.189, 316.1893, and 316.1895.
(2) Unsafely or improperly changing lanes as defined in s.316.085.
(3) Following another vehicle too closely as defined in s. 316.0895(1).
(4) Failing to yield the right-of-way as defined in s. 316.079, s. 316.0815, or s. 316.123.
(5) Improperly passing as defined in s. 316.083, s. 316.084, or s. 316.085.
(6) Violating traffic control and signal devices as defined in ss. 316.074 and 316.075.
is reckless driving per se.
(2) Except as provided in subsection (3), any person convicted of reckless driving shall be punished:
(a) Upon a first conviction, by imprisonment for a period of not more than 90 days or by fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(b) On a second or subsequent conviction, by imprisonment for not more than 6 months or by a fine of not less than $50 nor more=2 0than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(3) Any person:
(a) Who is in violation of subsection (1);
(b) Who operates a vehicle; and
(c) Who, by reason of such operation, causes:
1. Damage to the property or person of another commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or and s. 775.083 (ADDITION: which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than 30 days imprisonment.)
2. Serious bodily injury to another commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.0 84 (ADDITION which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than 6 months imprisonment.) The term "serious bodily injury" means an injury to another person, which consists of a physical condition that creates a substantial risk of death, serious personal disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
ADDITION:
3. The death of another person commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084 which for the purposes of this statue shall carry a minimum of no less than 1 year imprisonment.(go to the site to read the rest.)
This was posted on the internet in July of 2009. We know this because we paid for the site it was posted on. We know this because we posted it and then sent the link out to many organizations.
Now a major difference that we can spot right off is that when we wrote this bill we included pedestrians and bicyclist as we do not feel it right to advocate for the rights of one group of people over another. That's an ABATE of Florida gig.
Now we can't say that the ABATE of Florida Lobbyist stole the bill we wrote because there are enough differences to say, hey these bills are not exact. But then again there are enough similarities, and Evers and Reichenbach had accesses to the info, and Evers did say this would work.
But then we find ourselves thinking about how ABATE of Florida says they got the Helmet law abolished, when in fact it was
Chico Yasko, an abate member, who took the law to court and won his case without help from ABATE of FLorida.
How many have done the work that Doc takes credit for????
Add to Technorati Favorites
No comments yet