Suspended Florida Drivers Cause Too Many Car Accidents

As Florida Attorneys, we are distressed at the alarming number of people who are driving on Florida roads with suspended or revoked drivers licenses. Those same motorists, which in 2008, alone, totaled more than two million, caused almost 20 percent of all car accidents resulting in wrongful deaths, according to a AAA study.

According to a recent investigation, since 2004, more than twenty thousand drivers in Palm Beach County received a second or third ticket for driving with a suspended or revoked license. And, incredibly, a recently enacted law reduced penalties for repeat suspended license offenders. Amazingly, when many of these scofflaws finally go to court to deal with their suspensions, they actually drive there.

The law passed last year, reduced jail time for drivers whose licenses are suspended or revoked because they failed to pay tickets. We can only hope that the Florida Legislature reverses the current law, and provides greater penalties, which can only serve to protect everyone traveling on Florida’s roads.