Negligence in Blocking a Lane in Florida

In Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners v. Salas, 511 So.2d 544 (Fla.1987), the Court considered whether the driver's decision to make a left turn from the far right lane (an action which violated two traffic laws), superseded the county's negligence in blocking the left turn lane without providing any markers or guidance regarding the inability to turn left at the intersection. See: Salas, 511 So. 2d at 547. In the Court's words: "We are of the view, and we so hold, that the county could have easily foreseen that blocking off the turn lane, and deactivating the turn signal and thus leaving motorists with no guidance on if or when they could turn left, personal injury to someone was not a remote possibility. Blount's actions were not so unforeseeable that the county should be relieved, as a matter of law and policy, of all liability. . . . Blount's confusion at this busy and now more dangerous intersection was not some remote possibility, it was easily foreseeable. The fact that Blount was negligent when she turned left does not render her action so bizarre, unusual or outside the realm of the reasonably foreseeable that the county's actions did not also proximately cause the Salases' injuries." Id.