It is illegal to run a stop sign and drive through an intersection without stopping. This sometimes happens in rural areas when drivers don’t believe there’s enough traffic and so they neglect to stop. But it also happens in places where a stop is clearly necessary but the driver doesn’t see the stop sign or is going too fast to stop in time. Police officers will almost always pull people over if they run a stop sign.
But there’s another violation known as a rolling stop. It could also result in a traffic ticket in Florida. How is this different?
A complete stop
A police officer in Florida was asked what was required when someone reached a stop sign. He noted that a complete stop was necessary, meaning that the entire inertia of the vehicle would come to a halt. The driver could then look both ways and proceed forward.
A rolling stop is when someone does see the stop sign and they do slow down, but they act like they have reached a yield sign. They may still look both ways, but they never stop the vehicle’s momentum. Even if they take their foot off of the gas pedal, they just coast up to the stop sign and then push the gas down again to drive through the intersection.
People sometimes believe that doing this is safe enough because they have slowed down and looked for cross traffic. But it can still cause accidents, and it is technically a violation of the law. It could result in a ticket if a police officer sees a driver roll through a stop sign. Drivers who find themselves facing these types of allegations – especially if they believe they did come to a complete stop – need to know about all of their legal defense options.