Stop the Noise!

Hello Everyone,

Evelyn here,

It doesn't matter where you live these days, crime involving boom car drivers, loud, rude and pushes neighbors, drunken neighbors or drug addicts exist. It seems to be more present is our everyday existence today than from a decade or two ago, but more on this on another day.

Right now, I intend to impart some information that will help those of you wanting to do something about the loud music coming from cars of inconsiderate drivers in your area.

Also, I want to stress that it is a misconception to think that all boom cars drivers are young and male.  Boom car drivers come in both sexes, the young, the old, and of all races. Take a good look at some of their faces as they drive by you sometimes.

As I write this there are passing boom car drivers, someone blowing a horn that sounds like the type use in semi-trucks, people arguing. Is this a normal Friday evening? Not really. This is the protect of a small group people who have just learned that I am part an organization whose goal is the improve our current noise law. This law, Florida Statutes 316.3045-On The Operation Of Radios And Other Sound Making Devices A In Vehicles, is to my dismay little known, and of those drivers who doing know of it, much abused.

Florida Statutes 316.3045 states:

The 2007 Florida Statutes Title XXIII MOTOR VEHICLES Chapter 316 STATE UNIFORM TRAFFIC CONTROL View Entire Chapter 316.3045  Operation of radios or other mechanical sound making devices or instruments in vehicles; exemptions.-- (1)  It is unlawful for any person operating or occupying a motor vehicle on a street or highway to operate or amplify the sound produced by a radio, tape player, or other mechanical sound making device or instrument from within the motor vehicle so that the sound is: (a)  Plainly audible at a distance of 25 feet or more from the motor vehicle; or (b)  Louder than necessary forthe convenient hearing by persons inside the vehicle in areasadjoining churches, schools, or hospitals. (2)  The provisions of this section shall not apply to any law enforcement motor vehicle equipped with any communication device necessary in the performance of law enforcement duties or to any emergency vehicle equipped with any communication device necessary inthe performance of any emergency procedures. (3)  The provisions of this section do not apply to motor vehicles used for business or political purposes, which in the normal course of conducting such business use sound making devices. The provisions of this subsection shall not be deemed to prevent local authorities, with respect to streets and highways under their jurisdiction and within the reasonable exercise of the police power, from regulating the time and manner in which such business may be operated. (4)  The provisions of this section do not apply to the noise made by a horn or other warning device required or permitted by s. 316.271. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall promulgate rules defining "plainly audible" and establish standards regarding how sound should be measured by law enforcement personnel who enforce the provisions of this section. (5)  A violation of this section is a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a nonmoving violation as provided in chapter 318. History.--s. 1, ch. 90-256; s. 220, ch. 99-248; s. 9, ch. 2005-164.

So these in is the problem. The law is too weak. There are probably some lawmakers out there unhappy with my choice of works, but I can think of no other polite set of work for a law that has causing so much unrest and violence due to drivers the music extreme volume level within their cars.

Now the viable solutions.

Write and call you local representative, senators, city/county councilwoman of counsilman. 

In addition, NoiseOFF, the organization to with I am a member, is working on is getting the police to consider adding booming to the newly re-instated impoundment law, which Sarasota has begun. Some of the Saint Petersburg Police Department doesn’t think it's necessary. How can call either Bill Proffitt, their spokesperson; or Don Gibson, the PD attorney; or leave a message at Chief Harmon’s office. Call 893-7780 and ask for any of them.

No one of us is alone out there; and the police department as well as our representatives should be made aware of it. Members of the police department should be constantly reminded of the fact that when they fail to take serious a call of a citizen (who is suffering under the extreme volume of a boom car driver, and in some cases suggested to verbal abuses and threats of bodily harm) that they are in a sense condoning those the actions of the lawlessness of those drivers as well as not enforcing even this weak law that we now have on the legal docket.

I end this post as I began it with a boomer’s loud music intermittently playing in the background outside.

Evelyn out.

Tags: boom cars, police department, state representative, senators, noiseOFF