As of October 1st, anyone caught doing 30mph over the speed limit in Florida faces vehicle confiscation, five to ten years in prison and a ten-year license suspension. Bill HB 137, which was signed into law earlier today, was originally targeted at motorcyclists, but was amended at the last minute to include all vehicles. The full text of the bill follows the jump.
Photography credit: Roger Jones

Originally introduced by State Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who developed an irrational fear of bikers after he witnessed some pulling wheelies and driving dangerously during a ride-along with Miami police, HB 137 has become known as the Anti-Biker Bill due to its discriminatory nature.

Defending motorcyclists during hearings at the state legislature, a representative of ABATE, a motorcycle lobby group, argued that the motorcycle specific penalties far outweighed those for motorists who violate a rider's right of way, killing or injuring them.

While the bill was modified to include all vehicles before being passed into law, the anti-motorcycle language remains, specifically that referring to the revocation of a motorcycle endorsement, leading to some confusion. It's not known if car drivers will face the same license suspension as bike riders.

Jalopnik does not endorse dangerous driving, but its our belief that the best way to make roads safer is through education, not draconian enforcement. After all, isn't anyone with only a week or less of Driver's Ed and very little idea of how to control their vehicle in an emergency driving dangerously? [Via Hell For Leather]

Florida Bill HB 137, pre all-vehicles amendment:

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

An act relating to offenses committed while operating a
motorcycle; creating s. 316.1926, F.S.; providing
additional penalties for certain offenses committed by a
person operating or in actual physical control of a motorcycle; requiring that the person be taken into
custody; providing for seizure and forfeiture of the
motorcycle; providing for revocation of the person's
privilege to operate a motorcycle; providing an effective
date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
Section 1. Section 316.1926, Florida Statutes, is created
to read:

316.1926 Motorcycle offenses.--

(1) When a law enforcement officer charges a person with
reckless driving in violation of s. 316.192 or exceeding the speed limit by 30 miles per hour or more in violation of s. 316.183(2), s. 316.187, or s. 316.189 while operating or in actual physical control of a motorcycle, the officer shall arrest the person, take him or her into custody, and seize the motorcycle, which shall be subject to forfeiture under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act.
(2) Upon conviction, in addition to any other penalty provided by law, the court shall revoke the person's
authorization and privilege to operate a motorcycle for a period of 10 years and order the person to surrender his or herdriver's license.
(a) If the person holds a Class A, Class B, or Class C
driver's license, the department shall issue a replacement
license, valid for the remainder of the person's unexpired
license period, without the endorsement to operate a motorcycle.
(b) If the person holds a Class E driver's license that is not restricted to motorcycle operation only, the department shall issue a replacement license, valid for the remainder of the person's unexpired license period, without the authorization to operate a motorcycle.
(3) Revocation of the privilege to operate a motorcycle under this section shall not prohibit or restrict the issuance or renewal of a driver's license for purposes other than the operation of a motorcycle.
Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2008.

 

I heard it hadnt been passed yet.. and probly wont get passed

 

If it does you would prolly get the same **** as running

 

Right, the punishment for evading is less then that, so if your clocked doing over 30 may as well take your chances at ditching the pig.

 

Are you joking? You can get caught with drugs and do less time. I hate Florida. People who pull wheelies and stuff on interstates will take care of themselves in due time. Every time I see someone speeding or pulling a wheelie, I feel like clipping them and saying I never saw them.

 

lol...... yeah right dude. if this gets passed, the numbers of drivers eluding police will sky rocket. its ridiculous. the way i look at it, if i'm already clocked doing 30 over, i might as well run. can't wait for the chaos.

 

thats true, just go for it now.

 

I would leave the cop in the dust If I saw the flashing lights in my rear view.... They would probably radio in "silver corvette, excessive speeding heading north on I75"

 

This will just make people run from the cop more

 

Why would anyone be doing 30mph over the posted speed limit on a public road? They need to have their license revoked for doing something stupid like that. Don't even post up here and say you do it on a empty road with no traffic blah blah blah. We are lucky in Florida and have tracks EVERYWHERE around us. Go find one.
Florida obviously needs to do something because all these stupid kids keep killing themselves street racing. Also, what dumbass passed the law motocyclist don't have to wear a helmet anymore. WTF! I'd like to see the number of increased deaths since that law passed.

 

Wow that sucks, but I agree with BLK FC3S. I think the only people in trouble here are street/highway racers.

 

I don't think anyone here can say they haven't done 30 mph over the limit....
think about it, how many of us have gone 85 on the highway or pike when the speed limit was 55 ???? We are all guilty of speeding at some point in time but haven't been caught, so no one can preach about it, after all isn't that why we build our cars in the 1st place. What really needs to be said is that it needs to be controlled to help decrease the number of injuries but ALSO that this new law is a little on the excessive side. This should really be geared towards the people that are reckless , caught street racing or drunk driving.

L8R

 

I'm glad the taxpayers money will be going to keeping speeders locked up... Gay

 

As a rider, its thinking like this why i ride with my piece loaded. Im not condoning the doing of wheelies on the highway, as i think its stupid. Being on a bike, especially here in Fl is bad enough as it is, why do something even more risky as lifting the front.
As for the law....for the most part the bikers i know are all saying "catch me if you can!" But what is even funnier to me is that i know quite a few cops that are sportbike riders...and they say the same thing.

 

Agreed!!

 

Driving in Atlanta, traffic moves 85 in a 55, which isn't rediculous. Saying that 30 over in any circumstance is rediculous, is just retarded.

 

No, I did NOT spend thousands of dollars building my car so I can speed on a public road. That is ridiculous and something a highschooler would say. But you are right, there needs to be something done to help control the number of injuries/deaths in car accidents. Something to actually make people scared to go that fast, since after all, speed is what kills. How about a law that suspends the drivers license for excessive speeding....hmmmmm... win!

Quote from LIAR LIAR "Quit breaking the law *******"

 

That is keeping up with traffic. No police officer in his right mind will pull you over if you're keeping up with traffic.
Having said that, I visit Atlanta alot and have never seen the traffic move at 85 mph on I-75. That is just too fast for that many cars grouped together to be moving.

 

Well the part that their going to have the hardest time with is the so called “vehicle confiscation” part. Speeding in it of itself is viewed as a non-intentional crime, its when you cross the line to reckless that it can become a criminal matter. No Judge will risk pursuing vehicle confiscation over a crime that does not warrant seizure eg: bought with stolen/drug money/illegitimate funds, even then it can be very difficult. This law is broad and leaves no room for fair equivalent punishment eg: the guy in the Geo Metro goes 30 over gets this that and other plus losses his Geo, the guy in the Lambo goes over 30 gets this that and other plus losses his Lamborghini, I THINK NOT. One guy losses a $300 piece of **** and other losses a 2 million dollar gem, again NO WAY.

Let’s get real again, 5 to 10 years for going 30mph over, that’s even more laughable then the so called vehicle confiscation.

The whole thing is so stupid its not worth really entertaining the idea, pass a law to “SAVE LIVES” which prompts drivers to elude police putting even more lives at risk, then sentencing speeders to jail time in line with hard crimes like rape and murder.

This MUST be fake, or there must be some really cross eyed Mothers ******* in FL.

 

Yeah but that Geo is probably worth just as much to the owner as that lambo is to its owner

I agree the law is retarded, good thing doing 30 over in my car takes a lot of waiting, so much that I'd probably have enough time to look around and check for cops, haha. And no I didn't modify my car to race on the street, attend legal racing events and this law won't affect you in any way.

 

Just an after thought: in Europe on the autobahns with no speed limits 90% of car accidents involve 1 car, in America on our freeways 90% of accidents involve 2 cars. Just some food for thought.

 

I agree. But I think these were thrown in not for the first time offeneder, but rather a multiple offender.

Link me to where you got these percentages, please. Either way I fail to see the relation to these stats and the topic.

 

I don’t have a link for you, but im sure you could research it as I did read the report online.

Like I said it was just an after thought, it relates to speed and law. There are more fatalities per accident on the autobahn but less overall accidents and less over all fatalities. Also most tickets that are issued on the autobahn are issued to drivers going to slow thus causing unsafe driving conditions, see slow drivers are the "reckless" drivers there.

It all comes down to freedoms and responsibilities.

No speed limits = less accidents and less driving related deaths.

Speed limits = more accidents and more driving related deaths.

Are you making the connection now?

Let me give you another off topic example, lets take the Netherlands, they had huge drug and sex crime problems, all kind of drugs and tons of different sex crimes. OK, they legalize one drug, marijuana and drug related offenses drop by 90%, for all drugs. They legalize prostitution and all sex crimes drop 90%, so do STD’s

So the guy that was once molesting children to get his rocks off, now goes down to the red light district pays $20 and bangs some woman that looks young. The other guy that gets into all kinds of drugs and faces possible legal ramifications now says; screw it I will stick to smoking weed.

See America will never make these sound decisions because the government capitalizes from them in all the wrong ways.

 

Another after thought, I do recognize that Americas freeways and interstates are poorly designed and cant handle autobahn speeds coupled with domestic vehicle design and the fact that most Americans could not “handle” driving properly.

Another funny fact that you can look into, most 2 car accidents on the autobahn occur in the slowest right hand lane, where all the dumb ***** drive.

 

In Europe, they do not give driving licenses away in Cracker Jack boxes like here in the States. They have real written tests and comprehensive road tests. Baseline drivers are just much better.

I saw a study by the insurance institute ~10 years ago that concluded that differential in speed not absolute speed was the primary cause of automotive accidents and directly related to the severity of the accident/injury.

Speaking for myself, the most dangerous thing I find myself doing is weaving through slower traffic to get around some Bozo doing 66 mph in the left lane. I drive in Europe all the time and you almost never have to do that because slower drivers move over. If the LAW, keep left except to pass, were enforced, the available data collected both here and in Europe, suggests accidents/injuries would be greatly reduced. This is not PC and we must continue to concentrate our traffic laws on speeders because this approach has worked so well in the past. I hope you recognize the sarcasm.