More than two years ago 83-year-old Vertis Ryan died in a traffic crash. Now it is up to a Tampa jury to decide if it was just an accident or a homicide. Roger Yeager’s trial began yesterday in Hillsborough County on charges of reckless driving, vehicular homicide and street racing. The driver of the car he was accused of racing has already pled guilty and is serving three years in prison. He was the first witness to testify against Yeager.
According to the prosecution Yeager rammed his Nissan 350Z into a Ford Taurus that was making a U-Turn on Gibsonton Drive. According to an article on TBO.com Smith has already testified that he noticed Yeager was revving his engine and took off when a street light turned green. Smith passed the Nissan but then Yeager caught back up and the two began to race before he saw Yeager’s taillights as the car entered a curve where he crashed with the victim’s Taurus.
If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Tampa that led to criminal charges and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Defense Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourCase.com. Also you can contact Darren via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

The State of Florida has been changing traffic laws and fees a lot lately. There has been great debate as to whether the changes are for public safety or to raise money for the cash-strapped state. According to Bay News 9, another state legislator is proposing a bill to change a traffic law in the name of safety.
State Senator Thad Altman has proposed that booster seats be mandatory for children up to the age of seven. The current law requires a child in a car be restrained in a booster seat up to the age of four. He and booster seat saleswoman Barbara Hill are in support of the changes. The article on the stations website cites stats they say almost 200 children between the ages of 4-7 have been killed in Florida car crashes the past decade. They add almost 1,000 more have been injured.
If you have been cited for a traffic violation anywhere in Florida and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTickets.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email.

While you still can’t be cited for a traffic violation for texting and driving in Florida, there is one county where you can lose your job for doing so. ABC Action News’ Elizabeth Dinh is reporting that Polk County has banned its 2,000 employees from texting while on the road or on the clock. Polk officials say that after a third offense violating the rule, an employee will be suspended and could be fired.
The new rule is in response to the increasing number of crashes of trains and buses that are a result of the driver being distracted by test messaging. While the first few times a county employee is caught there will only be warnings issued, Polk County is hoping the new rule will lower the chance of a major accident and injuries caused by a county employee.
If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Polk or Hillsborough County and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTickets.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

Texting and driving is a bad idea and there are numerous studies and stats that back that up. In some reports it has been found that texting while driving is many times more dangerous than drinking and driving. The practice is under scrutiny at the federal level right now but before the U.S. Government puts a ban in place, Florida lawmakers may beat them to the punch according to an article at TBO.com.
A bill has been filed in Tallahassee to make texting and driving a noncriminal moving violation punishable by fines. Similar proposals have failed previously but the current bill will focus solely on texting and not talking on cell phones as well. Eighteen states already have some ban in place. Reports put the number of deaths due to distracted driving at 6,000 nationwide.
If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Tampa and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTickets.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

With a national summit and a bill in the Florida House, distracted driving is becoming a major issue in the United States as well as in our home state of Florida. Most expect the practice of sending text messages while driving to become a traffic offense in Florida shortly, until then Tampa high school students got a lesson in just how dangerous distracted driving can be thanks to a program sponsored by Allstate and reported on in the Tampa Tribune.
Students from Sickles, Lennard, Leto, Wharton and Freedom high schools took part in the class held in the parking lot of Steinbrenner Stadium. The high schoolers were asked to navigate cones while texting, eating, listening to loud music, drinking and being in a car full of fellow teens. On this day the drivers were only running over cones but the point the instructors made on any other day those could have been pedestrians.
If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Tampa and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTickets.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

The Federal Government has begun to take a long look at the dangers of distracted driving which stems from drivers texting, talking on their phones or even reading newspapers and magazines while driving! The Obama Administration has begun to take the first steps to curtail this behavior but it seems the first law may come from a recommendation made by the National Transportation Safety Board during the Bush administration. The NTSB has put banning commercial drivers from talking on cell phones on their list of the most important safety measures that need to be adopted and it doesn’t seem anyone is objecting according to an Associated Press article on BradentonHerald.com.
The Obama administration seems poised to act on this issue and an announcement could be made as early as next week at a two-day summit on distracted driving. Right now 17 states prohibit bus drivers from using cell phones while driving and 18 states have passed laws making it illegal to text and drive. Both of those practices have been banned in the District of Columbia as well.
If you are a commercial driver and have a traffic ticket or fine anywhere in the state of Florida we know how important your driving privleges are. Please do not hesitate to contact Traffic Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTicket.com. Also you can contact David via email.

Florida is a destination state for tourists and those who like to live in a sunny climate that has no state income tax. But the state may not be that attractive for cost conscious visitors or residents if a new law that taxes the amount you drive were to pass. There is an article on Tampa’s 10Connects.com today that talks about the possibility of the state charging motorists a tax based on the amount of miles they drive.
The reasons to raise more revenue for the state are numerous but the article states this new tax may be a way to make up for the amount of gas tax money Florida is losing based on drivers being more thrifty at the pump these days with the cost of fuel rising. Seems like it may be a better plan to just reduce fuel costs, which is something nobody seems to do although it gets talked about enough.
The tax would be determined by a GPS-type system being placed in all vehicles. Every time you go to the gas station the device would report the amount of miles you drove between fill-ups. Seems like a plan to not only raise revenues but also increase the number of thefts of gasoline, which is already happening in Tampa Bay. The VMT, vehicle miles travel tax, was a topic that the Department of Transportation did not want to comment on when contacted by the reporter.
If you have a traffic ticket or fine anywhere in the state of Florida and need qualified legal representation please do not hesitate to contact Traffic Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website fightyourticket.com. Also you can contact David via email.

The Clerks of Court all around the state of Florida are scrambling to try and find ways to make up for $90 million in budget cuts. So far the Florida’s 67 county clerks have cut jobs, closed offices, furloughed employees and cut down on services according to the Bradenton Herald story. So far 1300 jobs have been eliminated
The loss in revenue has led some to believe that there are more tickets being issued on Florida’s roads and that is the reason behind the recent raises in fees for everything from license renewals to renewing tags. There has already been increases in fees for all sorts of citations in counties across the state.
If you have received a traffic ticket anywhere in Florida please do not hesitate to contact Florida Traffic Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter. Also you can contact Darren via email.

Since the calendar flipped to 2009 eight months ago, the number of tickets that have been written by Tampa Police for “ear shattering car stereo volume levels” was nearing 1,400. The tickets are issued to driver’s whose music can be heard from 25 feet away and comes with a $101 fine. That number is up from the 836 citations issued all of last year.
According to the St. Pete Times website, the increased enforcement of the law came after complaints from East Tampa residents. Residents presented a petition signed by 400 people asking the police to allow them to give the license plate number of cars that they felt violated the law. The city declined that offer since officers need to witness the offense to write the citation.
If you have received a traffic ticket for a moving or non-moving violation in Hillsborough County please do not hesitate to contact Tampa Traffic Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

We told you weeks ago about the looming increase in fees for driver license and vehicle registration renewals. We said get it done early but you didn’t listen did you? Thousands of Florida drivers who are eligible to renew licenses and registrations before the almost 50% fee increases take effect on September 1. So many citizens have tried to renew online that the Department of Motor Vehicle website crashed Friday. (read more)
There have been long lines all over the state including here in Manatee County. There were 60 people waiting in line near DeSoto Square Mall Friday morning and over 7,000 online transactions were processed Tuesday, almost double the number from the previous day. This is the first time these fees have been increased in 20 years.
If you have been involved in a traffic accident anywhere in Florida please do not hesitate to contact Florida Traffic Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping by our comprehensive website.