Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...The Colinas' vehicle was struck by one of the oncoming vehicles, resulting in Mrs. Colina's death. See id. The district court there held that the county's failure to repair the traffic signal was not the proximate cause of the collision because the actions of the drivers constituted intervening causes. Citing section 316.1235 of the Florida Statutes (1979), which required drivers to treat an inoperable traffic signal as a four-way stop, the district court stated that the oncoming driver failed to stop as required by law, and that Colina had breached his duty to proceed into the intersection only when reasonably safe to do so....

...Thus, in the course of human events, it is certainly foreseeable that drivers approaching an intersection with an inoperable traffic light will fail to stop, despite the traffic law requiring drivers to treat the inoperable signal as a four-way stop. See § 316.1235, Fla....

...However, I do not join in the majority's opinion because I do not agree that the duty on the part of Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) in this case was a duty to warn of the danger of the traffic lights being out. The motorists driving through this intersection had a duty to know whether the traffic light was working, § 316.1235, Fla....

...of Mrs. Colina's death. The case, however, turns on whether Masferrer's and Colina's actions constituted superseding, intervening causes relieving the county of liability. We hold that their actions were such intervening causes. As previously noted, section 316.1235, Florida Statutes (1979) requires drivers to treat intersections with malfunctioning traffic lights as if controlled by stop signs....

...However, Dade County has no record of the report. Additionally, according to standard procedure the county would not respond to such a report because in the vast majority of cases the light begins working again when power is restored. [2] His stop complied, whether knowingly or not, with section 316.1235, Florida Statutes (1979). 316.1235 Vehicle approaching intersection in which traffic lights are inoperative....

...denied, 464 So.2d 554 (Fla.1985), the plaintiff sued the county for negligence in connection with a collision at an intersection with a malfunctioning traffic light. The third district noted that the two drivers involved in the accident had not complied with section 316.1235, Florida Statutes (1979), which required drivers to treat intersections with malfunctioning traffic lights as if controlled by stop signs....

...endants'] conduct was, as a matter of law, not a legal cause of the plaintiff's damages." Id. at 1163. Under Adoptie and Colina, Calvert's failure to stop at the intersection was a superseding intervening cause relieving FP & L of any liability. See § 316.1235, Fla....

...Concerning appellant's first issue, the failure of the trial court to give certain requested jury instructions advising that violations of the Uniform Traffic Control Law are evidence of negligence, we reverse as to the lower court's failure to give instructions relating to (1) Section 316.1235, Florida Statutes (1989), requiring a vehicle to stop when approaching an intersection where traffic lights are inoperative; (2) Section 316.183, Florida Statutes (Supp....

...ific conduct the two statutes prohibit is the operation of a vehicle with defective equipment. Cf. Estate of Wallace v. Fisher, 567 So.2d 505 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990). Turning to the first requested instruction, pertaining to the effect of a violation of section 316.1235, we note that it was clearly supported by the evidence....

...Addison, 502 So.2d 1241, 1242 (Fla. 1987), when there is evidence of a violation of a traffic ordinance, a requesting party is entitled to have the jury instructed on his or her theory of the case. The appellees respond, however, that an instruction relating to a violation of section 316.1235 was inapplicable to the issues tried, because the statute refers to intersections controlled by "traffic lights," which signifies only the standard red, green, and yellow traffic lights which alternately stop traffic and then permit...

...Nevertheless, an illuminated flashing signal is clearly included within the general definition of an official traffic control device under section 316.003(23), in that it is a signal which regulates, warns, or guides traffic. We therefore conclude that by using the term "traffic lights" in section 316.1235, the legislature clearly intended to include both traffic control signal devices, as referred to in section 316.075, i.e., those which alternately direct traffic to stop and permit it to proceed, as well as those provided in section...

...to a penalty. The 1971 act did not, however, furnish any guidance to motor vehicle operators regarding what action they should take when approaching intersections where traffic signals are inoperative. To correct the omission, the legislature added section 316.1235 in 1977, requiring all drivers to stop in the same manner as required when approaching a stop intersection....

...49 Fla.Jur.2d Statutes § 175 (1984). Therefore, after considering the above pertinent statutes in pari materia, and the legislature's intent that the Uniform Traffic Control Law provide uniformity, we conclude that the term "traffic lights," as used in section 316.1235, required the trial court to instruct the jury that a violation of the provisions of this statute was evidence of negligence....

...Trooper Chafey observed that several motorists were driving through the intersection with the non-functioning traffic signal without slowing or stopping their vehicles. He feared that there might be a second collision. Trooper Chafey recalled that Florida Statute 316.1235 requires motorists to treat a non-functioning traffic signal as a stop signal and he decided to issue citations for violation of said traffic control statute....

...verse jury verdict in a negligence action arising out of an intersectional motor vehicle accident. The City of Miami contends that the trial court committed reversible error by refusing to instruct the jury, upon the City’s request, as to Sections 316.1235, 316.123(2), Florida Statutes (1989)....

...ht which is “inoperative,” that is, a traffic light which is not operating at all, and (2) the traffic light in the instant case was malfunctioning, but, contrary to the City of Miami’s argument, was not “inoperative” within the meaning of Section 316.1235, Florida Statutes (1989), as, in our view, the terms “inoperative” and “malfunctioning” are not synonymous....

...The crash occurred at an intersection a few days after Hurricane Wilma struck Palm Beach County. Due to the hurricane, the intersection's traffic lights were inoperative. In such a situation, Florida law requires motorists to treat the intersection as a four-way stop. See § 316.1235, Fla....