Jesse Scheckner
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation to crack down on drag racers, stunt drivers and street takeovers that in recent years have led to thousands of arrests and several deaths across Florida.
The measure (SB 1764), among other things, hikes fines for coordinating or participating in those criminal roadway behaviors to up to $2,000 for a first offense and a one-year license suspension.
Subsequent offenses will carry much harsher penalties.
It will also be a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and $4,000 in fines, for a person involved in a street takeover to knowingly interfere with the movement of an emergency vehicle. A second offense could land someone in prison for 15 years.
Hollywood Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo, the bill’s sponsor, said lethal street shenanigans are still problematic despite legislation he passed in 2022 to curb the activities disproportionately popular among young people.
“They use social media, and they are creating an incredibly dangerous environment,” he said ahead of a unanimous Senate floor vote for the bill on March 1. “Ambulances, fire and police cannot get to the center of the intersection (and) these networks … will likely result in the injury or death of your child or grandchild at some point.”
Asked how many lives he expected the bill to save, Pizzo said, “Candidly, it may very well save the lives of some of the kids that come over for pizza (with my kids, and) that’s enough for me.”
Police, especially in South Florida, responded to a flood of street takeovers last year of which footage spread virally on social media. Between 2018 and 2022, law enforcement officers issued 6,641 citations for street racing and stunt driving, according to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Nearly 28% of them were in Miami-Dade. The median age of offenders was 21.
“As a father of kids that will be driving someday soon,” Zephyrhills Republican Sen. Danny Burgess said, “I know that I’ll be thankful for this down the road — no pun intended.”
SB 1764 adds to and augments strictures lawmakers adopted two years ago through legislation Pizzo and then-Republican Rep. Anthony Rodriguez of Miami-Dade carried to address street takeovers that had risen in frequency during the pandemic in and outside the United States.
A major change the 2022 law brought was allowing police to hand out fines and make arrests based solely on video evidence of stunt driving, drag racing and street takeovers. Florida law already prohibited the behavior, but statutes at the time required police to be on the scene to enforce the law.
But while the ability to enforce the law was broadened, the penalties for breaking the law did not prove to be strong enough deterrents, according to Apopka Republican Rep. Doug Bankson, who sponsored a House version of this year’s legislation with Jacksonville Republican Rep. Kiyan Michael.
“The problem is that life does not allow a do-over with a simple push of a button (like in a video game),” he said. “These events are killing kids and endangering bystanders, damaging property and creating public nuisance … and it’s time to act.”
Under the coming changes, people who merely watch the event in person will face a $500 fine, up from $65 now.
That detail concerned Tampa Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart, who voted “no” on SB 1764 alongside St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner. Hart explained that while the measure will likely tamp down on risky roadway antics, it may inadvertently ensnare innocent passersby.
“I could by riding my bike and this is happening, the police come up (and) now all of a sudden I’m caught up as somebody who’s watching what’s happening,” she said. “We’re really reacting kind of knee-jerk, and we’re going to be penalizing some folk who may not have really been a part of this street takeover.”
SB 1764 goes into effect July 1.
8 comments
rbruce
May 7, 2024 at 11:17 am
Good way to stop expansion of gang activity in South Florida. This is a “broken windows” approach. Simple arrests will get gang members and immigrants who are in the country illegally into the “system” for financial investigation.
Dont Say FLA
May 7, 2024 at 12:05 pm
America pushed car culture for more than 75 years now. What did we think was going to happen? We thought everybody would drive and be safe from crashes and from brownish people.
What really happened? Most kids these days fully reject driving dependency, refusing to live where cars are necessary and refusing to buy cars.
If there is a subculture of youths who still fancy driving so much as to stunt drive and race and stuff, make a damn ~skate park but for cars for them to do all their wacky driving in a safer environment, but make it affordable unlike the private racetracks all around that cater exclusivity to rich guys driving Tiny D Mobiles well below the limits of their Tiny D Mobiles.
These kids in their souped up Civics would destroy the Tiny D Mobile drivers on the race track if only there were race track types of places within reach of the people who have to use public roads like most all us poors do.
C.o.d.
May 7, 2024 at 3:37 pm
Everyone pays for that on their car insurance. City streets are full of it. My neighborhood used to be quiet and full of kids playing and seniors walking hand in hand. Not so anymore because of drunks spewing loud gangster rap careening from one bar to the next, crotch rockets speeding down a residential street and causing accidents on highways, fat hogs taking over at all hours, and stupid suped up civics races by reckless teens. It’s out of control and zero cops anywhere, just not worth their time. Sick of it. Not a fan of tiny d but this is one area the magas could actually clamp down on and do something constructive.
Dont Say FLA
May 7, 2024 at 4:41 pm
Everybody pays for affordable, public race track parks for these little monsters we all created so they could go do all things you enumerated that they do on public streets, but do them in car parks designated for such activities?
Remember when skate punks were a big problem? And then there were skate parks? And skate punks didn’t bother people so much unless they went to the skate park?
Well I say let’s do the same for cars. Winner gets a hand job from an 18, 19, or 20 year old who is too young to strip.
Lawless Florida
May 7, 2024 at 5:48 pm
Lawless Florida where NO MANDATORY motorcycle insurance exists nor even inspections by the DOT like cars.
Dont Say FLA
May 8, 2024 at 1:40 pm
Motorcyclers don’t have to carry insurance? I did not know that. I assume if someone gets a loan for buying the motorcycle, they have to buy insurance to cover the bank. But liability is still not required? Maybe it’s because the motorcyclers never have to pay for crashes they cause what with being dead and all.
Are there any sorts of homes, tiny homes perhaps, when insurance is not required by a lender for protecting the lender’s property, ie “your” house?
Dont Say FLA
May 8, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Abandoned malls could make great car parks, if only the gub’ment would buy them up, tear them down, and pave some car parks for kids to have fun with the cars we’ve all worked so hard to force onto them and attempt to make central to their lives such that they are as dependent on a car as they are on food and water.
Dont Say FLA
May 8, 2024 at 1:46 pm
Oh and maybe even build a few hills in these car parks so kids can learn how to drive over the crest of a hill, like the Rhonda Campaign was fully unable to do in Tennessee despite being at SUV driver seat heights yielding improved visibility over the crest of the hill and they all crashed into each other anyways.
Who paid for all tho SUV repairs, by the by. Was it the Rhonda Campaign? Or, far more likely, was it Florida’s taxpayers?