338.155  Payment of toll on toll facilities required; exemptions.--

(1)  No persons are permitted to use any toll facility without payment of tolls, except employees of the agency operating the toll project when using the toll facility on official state business, state military personnel while on official military business, handicapped persons as provided in this section, persons exempt from toll payment by the authorizing resolution for bonds issued to finance the facility, and persons exempt on a temporary basis where use of such toll facility is required as a detour route. Any law enforcement officer operating a marked official vehicle is exempt from toll payment when on official law enforcement business. Any person operating a fire vehicle when on official business or a rescue vehicle when on official business is exempt from toll payment. The secretary, or the secretary's designee, may suspend the payment of tolls on a toll facility when necessary to assist in emergency evacuation. The failure to pay a prescribed toll constitutes a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a moving violation pursuant to s. 318.18. The department is authorized to adopt rules relating to guaranteed toll accounts.

(2)  Any person driving an automobile or other vehicle belonging to the Department of Military Affairs used for transporting military personnel, stores, and property, when properly identified, shall, together with any such conveyance and military personnel and property of the state in his or her charge, be allowed to pass free through all tollgates and over all toll bridges and ferries in this state.

(3)  Any handicapped person who has a valid driver's license, who operates a vehicle specially equipped for use by the handicapped, and who is certified by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459 or by comparable licensing in another state or by the Adjudication Office of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or its predecessor as being severely physically disabled and having permanent upper limb mobility or dexterity impairments which substantially impair the person's ability to deposit coins in toll baskets, shall be allowed to pass free through all tollgates and over all toll bridges and ferries in this state. A person who meets the requirements of this subsection shall, upon application, be issued a vehicle window sticker by the Department of Transportation.

(4)  A copy of this section shall be posted at each toll bridge and on each ferry.

(5)  The Department of Transportation shall provide envelopes for voluntary payments of tolls by those persons exempted from the payment of tolls pursuant to this section. The department shall accept any voluntary payments made by exempt persons.

(6)  Personal identifying information provided to, acquired by, or in the possession of the Department of Transportation, a county, or an expressway authority for the purpose of using a credit card, charge card, or check for the prepayment of electronic toll facilities charges to the department, a county, or an expressway authority is exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution.

History.--s. 1, ch. 59-70; ss. 23, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 243, ch. 71-136; s. 102, ch. 77-104; s. 185, ch. 84-309; s. 3, ch. 85-184; s. 2, ch. 88-252; s. 14, ch. 93-268; s. 47, ch. 94-237; s. 971, ch. 95-148; s. 1, ch. 96-178; s. 55, ch. 97-100; s. 1, ch. 2000-244; s. 15, ch. 2000-266; s. 1, ch. 2001-70.