Violation of Right of Way

Florida statute 316.075 is often used when individuals are involved in a crash and are cited with violation of right of way. The most common example of this citations use involves individuals that are attempting to turn left in front of oncoming traffic. Often individuals will have a green steady light and for one reason or another they collide with oncoming traffic. Florida law requires that vehicular traffic turning right or left shall yield the right-of-way to other vehicles and to pedestrians lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk at the time such signal is exhibited. The most common issue that I hear involves the speed of the approaching driver. Clients will say the oncoming driver was traveling well above the posted speed limit, and that but-for their speed they would have been able to clear the intersection.

Like in another areas of Florida traffic law, if your case involves a traffic crash, keep in mind that the officer can NOT provetheir case without the assistance of witnesses. Therefore, in many instances it may be to your advantage to plead not guilty and try the case in front of a Judge. The officer will only be able to testify as to crash damage and nothing else since they did not witness the accident.