When driving, you have to be alert at all times. This means no talking on cell phones, no texting, no eating, no driving distracted in any terms; we should all know this, it is commonsense. Nonetheless, people continue to pay no attention to their surroundings. A failure to yield traffic citations can give you a lot more than just a citation from police.
Auto Vs. Bicycle
In Portland, Oregon, on July 15, 2013, a failure to yield not only left 34-year-old Hector Perez in critical condition, but he was cited with a ticket as well. This can happen in St. Petersburg just as easily as it happened in Portland, Oregon. Perez was on a bicycle and was cited for “Failure to Yield to Vehicle While Entering a Roadway (with crash).”
Failure to yield can cause anything from an “almost accident” if the parties involved managed to avoid each other, to death, unfortunately. It depends on all the factors involved in each situation and timing.
Auto Vs. Emergency Vehicle
In Rogersville, Arkansas, one woman got more than she bargained for when she was driving drunk, an illegal act in itself, and she failed to yield to an emergency vehicle. An emergency vehicle can be a police car with flashing lights that is en-route to a situation, or a fire truck, ambulance, or another type of emergency transport that retains right-of-way to the road during certain types of events. She was ticketed with not only a failure to yield, but a DUI as well. While some types of failure to yield traffic citations cases are open to interpretation, discussion, and investigation, there are strict rules pertaining to those who do not yield to emergency vehicles.
Auto Vs. Pedestrian
In Florida, failure to yield to a pedestrian is a moving violation. In The Gainesville Sun in February 2013, there was an article about a plain clothes police officer trying to cross over a cross-walk in busy traffic. When those who didn’t let him cross passed by, he is reported to have smiled at them. Lo and behold, a little farther down the road, another Gainesville police officer was waiting to detain them, while giving them a $154 citation and deducting three points from their driver’s license. It happened to be in front of Gainesville High School. It just shows that you need to be vigilant in your driving everywhere, not only in Saint Petersburg, but everywhere you go, and particularly watch for schools and daycare centers.
Failure to yield traffic citations is one of the most commonly ticketed traffic violations. In Florida, when investigating a failure to yield incident, differing factors can be taken into account. Both Florida statute law and what is known as “common law” factors are taken into account when investigating a failure to yield incident. In some cases, one law might see the incident one way, and the other law might see it another way.
If you find yourself in such a case, you should contact a personal injury attorney who can help you navigate through the differing aspects of the laws. In essence, in the State of Florida, failure to yield cases can be argued both ways. The outcome will be subjective to the circumstances of each.