legislation<\/a>, pushed by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola, passed its first committee on Tuesday. It aims to keep Florida highways safe following a deadly crash on the turnpike that gained national attention over the summer.<\/p>\nBill targets companies and drivers<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m mad at the motor carriers who would hire him. I\u2019m mad at the people who would put their loads in carriers and not do the due diligence to know they\u2019ve got an illegal driving the truck,\u201d Gaetz said.<\/p>\n
The bill would allow troopers to immediately turn drivers over to federal officials, impound their trucks, fine companies $50,000 and ban them from operating on Florida highways.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotor carriers themselves have to ask the question, do we have we got a legal driver behind the wheel who knows what he\u2019s doing behind the wheel? That\u2019s an important due diligence action to take,\u201d Gaetz said.<\/p>\n
Legislation follows deadly crash<\/p>\n
Gaetz developed the bill after a semi driver in the country illegally made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike in August, killing three people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure we don\u2019t have illegal drivers and drivers who don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing driving dangerously on the roads of northwest Florida,\u201d Gaetz said.<\/p>\n
Florida Politics<\/p>\n
Opposition cites driver shortage concerns<\/p>\n
The American Trucking Association says the country is short more than 87,000 semi drivers. The Florida Immigration Coalition says the bill would worsen that shortage and Florida\u2019s affordability crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes the supply of goods when there\u2019s high demand, it\u2019s going to be a spike in prices. It\u2019s not just a solution in search of a problem. It\u2019s a solution that exacerbates a problem,\u201d said Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigration Coalition.<\/p>\n
Gaetz said there are other ways to get needed drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope any kind of shortage isn\u2019t not met by a kind of a shrug and a wink and putting illegals behind the wheel when they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Gaetz said.<\/p>\n
Some provisions in the bill are already law, such as turning over anyone found to be in the country illegally to federal officials. Gaetz said that ensures the legislation fits with what law enforcement is already doing.<\/p>\n
State law enforcement is already testing drivers\u2019 ability to speak and understand English at agriculture inspection stations across the state.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida state troopers could soon impound semi-trucks on the spot under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[65727,1442,265,11593,28,30,29,2161,8236,1841,712,1443,99,65725,4214,65724,65728,65726],"class_list":{"0":"post-134040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-cdl","9":"tag-cody-butler","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-don-gaetz","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-government","16":"tag-illegal-immigration","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-law","19":"tag-legislature","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-semi-drivers","22":"tag-senate","23":"tag-trucking","24":"tag-turnpike-crash","25":"tag-undocumented-migrants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}