Is It Illegal to Not Use Your Turn Signal? Fort Myers Accident Attorney Explains
Yes, it is illegal. Florida Statute 316.155 requires a continuous signal for at least the last 100 feet before any turn or lane change — and that rule does not stop applying because you are in a dedicated turn lane. A missed blinker rarely drives the headline of a personal injury case, but after thirty years of reviewing Fort Myers crash files I can tell you it shows up in the fine print constantly. It is often the small fact that moves the fault percentage from 60-40 to 80-20, and sometimes from a denied claim to a paid one.
This post walks through what Florida Statute 316.155 actually says, the situations where we see no-signal crashes in Fort Myers, why these cases are harder to win than people assume, and what to do if you think the other driver turned without a blinker.
What Florida law actually says about turn signals
The governing statute is Florida Statute 316.155. Two things matter from it.
First, you have to signal any time you turn or move right or left on a roadway. Not just at intersections. Lane changes count. Pulling out of a parking spot onto a travel lane counts. Moving over to make room for an emergency vehicle counts. The statute does not carve out an exception for “obvious” turns, and that includes dedicated turn-only lanes on Daniels Parkway or Six Mile Cypress Parkway where everyone in the lane is presumably turning. In plain English: if your wheels are about to point a different direction than the lane you are in, the blinker has to be on.
Second, the signal has to run continuously for at least the last 100 feet before the maneuver. A two-second flick as you start the turn is not enough under the statute. At 35 mph, 100 feet is about two seconds of travel; at 55 on I-75, it is closer to one and a quarter seconds. The point of the 100-foot rule is to give the driver behind you, the cyclist on your right, and the pedestrian at the corner enough warning to react.
The penalty for a violation, standing alone, is modest — a noncriminal moving infraction, a fine in the $150 range, and three points on your license. The real consequences come downstream: higher insurance premiums for years, and, if a crash happens, a documented statutory violation that a personal injury lawyer can use to anchor a negligence argument.
Two other Florida statutes shape these cases on the back end. Section 768.81 is Florida’s modified comparative fault rule, rewritten in the 2023 tort reform. It works like this: a jury assigns a percentage of fault to everyone involved, and if your share is 50 percent or more, you recover nothing. If you are under 50 percent, your damages are reduced by your share. A failure-to-signal violation is almost always part of how those percentages get argued. And Section 95.11(4)(a), also rewritten in 2023, cut the statute of limitations for most negligence claims from four years to two — meaning the clock on a turn-signal crash from this morning runs out in May 2028.
The five no-signal scenarios we actually see
If I sat down with a year of our Fort Myers car-accident files and pulled out every case where a missed turn signal mattered, almost all of them would fall into one of these five patterns.
- Left turns across oncoming traffic. A driver heading north on Cleveland Avenue cuts left across the southbound lanes without a blinker, the oncoming driver has no reason to brake, and the result is a T-bone or near head-on. These tend to produce the worst injuries we see in city driving.
- Lane changes on I-75 near Alico Road and the Daniels exits. Heavy commuter merging traffic, drivers riding too close, and a no-signal lane drift produces a sideswipe or a hard brake chain that becomes a rear-end pile-up. Studies have found drivers fail to signal lane changes close to half the time, and the rear-end rate in our caseload reflects it.
- Right-on-red turns over a pedestrian or cyclist. The driver is looking left for a gap in traffic and rolls into a right turn without ever signaling. The pedestrian in the crosswalk on their right — who would have stopped if they had seen a blinker — gets clipped. We see this most often along McGregor Boulevard and Summerlin Road, where pedestrian and bike traffic is heavier than drivers expect.
- Parking-lot turns at the big shopping centers. Bell Tower, Gulf Coast Town Center, Edison Mall, the strips along Colonial Boulevard and Pine Island Road — these are private property, but Florida courts still apply ordinary negligence rules. A no-signal turn into a row of parked cars where someone is backing out is a classic scenario, and the question of who had the right of way usually turns on what each driver communicated.
- Turn-only-lane “I assumed” crashes. A driver in a left-turn-only lane at, say, the Daniels Parkway and Six Mile Cypress intersection decides at the last second to cut back into the through lane. No signal. The driver in the through lane has no way to know, and the sideswipe happens at speed.
$575,000 after a Fort Myers head-on crash
A South Fort Myers man sustained a fractured wrist and facial injuries after a head-on collision with a distracted driver. That case settled for $575,000. The crash report listed “failure to maintain lane” as the citation, but our investigation showed the at-fault driver had drifted without signaling while reaching for a phone. That evidence shifted the fault percentages well before any jury saw the case.
Why turn-signal cases are harder to prove than they look
From the outside, a no-signal case looks straightforward. The other driver broke a statute, you got hurt, the math should be clean. In practice, three things make these cases harder than clients expect.
The evidence is fleeting. A blinker is on or off for a second or two. There is no skid mark for a missing signal. Unless somebody captured it on video, the proof is witness memory, and witness memory degrades within days. We send out evidence-preservation letters in the first 48 hours to nearby businesses, doorbell-camera owners, and traffic-camera operators because most private systems overwrite within a week or two.
The other driver almost never admits it. The statement at the scene is usually “I had my blinker on.” We have had cases where the responding deputy from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the report that the at-fault driver admitted not signaling — and those reports do work — but more often the report is silent, and we have to build the case from physical evidence and witness testimony.
The defense will argue you could have avoided it anyway. Under Section 768.81’s modified comparative fault, the insurance carrier has every reason to put as much of the percentage on you as possible. If you were going one mile over the limit, looking at your phone for half a second, or “should have seen” the car drifting into your lane, that becomes their argument. We have to be ready for it, which means building the speed, sight-line, and reaction-time picture early.
On top of all of that, the medical side of the case runs on its own clock. Florida’s PIP statute, Section 627.736, gives you up to $10,000 in no-fault medical coverage regardless of who caused the crash — but only if you get to a doctor within 14 days. We have seen people walk away from a parking-lot tap, wake up two weeks later with neck pain that does not quit, and discover their PIP is gone. Whatever you think happened with the turn signal, get checked out inside two weeks.
What to do if you think the other driver did not signal
If you can do these things in the first hour after a crash, you make the case dramatically easier to prove later. In thirty years of working these files I have watched the same five moves separate the strong cases from the ones we have to fight uphill.
- Say it out loud to the responding officer. If you believe the other driver did not signal, tell the deputy that, in those words, before you move on to anything else. A line in the crash report under Section 316.066 saying “Driver 1 states Driver 2 did not signal the turn” is far stronger evidence months later than your memory of the same statement.
- Look around for cameras within the first 30 minutes. Gas stations, drive-throughs, doorbell cameras on nearby houses, business storefronts, the back of a parked semi. Photograph each location so we can send a preservation letter that day or the next.
- Get names and phone numbers, not just “a witness saw it.” Independent witnesses are gold in turn-signal cases. They are also the first thing the carrier tries to discount, so we need their contact information before they drive away.
- Take pictures of the vehicles’ positions before anyone moves them, if it is safe. The angle of the turn — whether the at-fault driver was already committed mid-turn or was still in their original lane — often tells us something about whether a signal could have been on at all.
- See a doctor inside 14 days, even if you feel fine. Soft-tissue injuries from a sideswipe or a low-speed T-bone often do not announce themselves for a week. The PIP 14-day rule is not flexible — miss it and the $10,000 in no-fault medical is gone, which puts you behind on the medical bills before the liability fight has even started.
One more thing on the insurance side. If the at-fault driver carries minimum limits — which is depressingly common on Florida roads — your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage under Section 627.727 may be the only meaningful source of recovery. Pull your declarations page out and look at the UM line before you assume the other driver’s policy will cover you.
Key Takeaways
- Florida Statute 316.155 requires a continuous turn signal for at least the last 100 feet before any turn or lane change — including in dedicated turn-only lanes. No exceptions.
- The ticket itself is small (around $150, three points), but the same statutory violation can anchor a negligence claim if the missed signal contributed to a crash.
- Florida’s modified comparative fault rule (Section 768.81, post-2023) bars recovery if you are 50 percent or more at fault, so the percentage fight matters enormously.
- The two-year statute of limitations under Section 95.11(4)(a) starts running on the date of the crash — half what it used to be before the 2023 reform.
- Evidence in no-signal cases disappears fast. Cameras overwrite within 7 to 30 days, witness memory fades, and the at-fault driver’s story tends to harden. Move quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Is failing to use a turn signal actually illegal in Florida?
Yes. Florida Statute 316.155 requires drivers to signal before turning, changing lanes, or moving right or left on a roadway. The signal has to be continuous for at least the last 100 feet before the maneuver. It is a noncriminal moving violation, generally carrying a fine in the $150 range plus three points on your license, and the points typically push your insurance premium up at renewal.
Q2. Do I really have to signal in a dedicated turn-only lane?
Yes. The statute draws no exception for turn-only lanes. The reasoning is that other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians cannot read your mind based on lane position alone. The driver in front of you might also be deciding at the last second to go straight from a turn lane. Signaling removes that guesswork.
Q3. If the other driver did not signal and hit me, can I still be found partly at fault?
You can. Florida uses modified comparative fault under Section 768.81. A jury assigns a percentage to each party, and if you are 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. If you are under 50 percent, your recovery is reduced by your share. The defense almost always argues the injured driver could have avoided the crash, so a failure-to-signal case is rarely a clean 100-zero split without good evidence.
Q4. How do you prove the other driver did not use a turn signal?
Dashcam footage, doorbell and business security video pulled from nearby buildings, independent witness statements taken before memories fade, the responding officer’s crash report under Section 316.066, and sometimes the other driver’s own statement at the scene. We send preservation letters fast because most private camera systems overwrite within 7 to 30 days.
Q5. How long do I have to file a claim after a Fort Myers turn-signal crash?
Under the 2023 reform to Section 95.11(4)(a), the statute of limitations for most negligence claims in Florida is two years from the date of the crash. That is half the prior four-year window. We tell people not to wait — by the time a serious injury fully reveals itself, six months can already be gone.
Hurt in a Fort Myers crash where the other driver did not signal? Call our office.
If you were hit by a driver who turned or changed lanes without signaling in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero, Bonita Springs, Naples, or anywhere in Lee or Collier County, I would like to hear what happened. We offer a free consultation, and there is no fee unless we recover for you. Call 239-992-8259 or reach out through our contact page. The two-year clock starts running the day of the crash, so the sooner we get the evidence locked down, the better.
About the Author
Personal injury is the focus of David B. Pittman, Esq.’s practice in Fort Myers and across Lee County, and has been since he founded Pittman Law Firm, P.L. more than three decades ago. The firm’s Fort Myers presence handles a steady stream of serious-injury work along the Daniels Parkway, Six Mile Cypress, McGregor Boulevard, Cleveland Avenue, and Summerlin Road corridors, and along I-75 between Estero and Bell Tower. David’s caseload runs heavily toward representing injured clients across Lee and Collier Counties, with a particular focus on commercial-vehicle, complex-liability, and serious-injury cases.
Educationally, David is a graduate of both The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina School of Law. Professionally, he holds AV-Preeminent status with Martindale-Hubbell and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum membership.
David has held a Florida real estate broker license for twenty-five years, a credential that shapes how the firm reads the property side of premises cases. The firm handles personal injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, serving Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, with offices at Windsor Place in Bonita Springs (main) and Fort Myers (satellite). Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation.
The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This is attorney advertising material. Pittman Law Firm, P.L., 3525 Bonita Beach Rd, Suite 107, Bonita Springs, FL 34134.