Drivers angered after vehicles towed during holiday fun

Some people’s Fourth of July festivities were anything but festive when authorities began enforcing a traffic law some people say hasn’t been followed since they were children. 

Three cars were towed from Memorial Bridge, which connects Palatka and East Palatka, according to an official from Johnson’s Towing & Recovery in Palatka. The business towed the vehicles Tuesday evening, the official said, after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper enforced Florida Statute 316.1945. 

The statute states “Except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic, or in compliance with law or the directions of a police officer or official traffic control device, no person shall stand, stop or park a vehicle … upon any bridge or other elevated structure upon a highway or within a highway tunnel.”

“One of our troopers assigned to Putnam County was patrolling the area of the Memorial Bridge and observed numerous vehicles illegally parked on the shoulder of the bridge span,” FHP Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan said in an email Thursday. “The trooper observed these vehicles abandoned, aka unoccupied by the driver/passengers, and then requested for the removal of the unsafe vehicles.”

Although vehicles were towed, he said, no parking citations were issued that evening. 

East Palatka resident Makayla Bolen said she parked on Memorial Bridge around 3:30 p.m., something she and her family have been doing for years. She said they’ve parked on the bridge as recently as the Blue Crab Festival on Memorial Day weekend and did so during Palatka’s Fourth of July festivities last year. 

“My 5-year-old loves the fireworks, so we always want to be where he can see them,” she said Thursday. 

This year, however, her husband’s truck got towed. She described the FHP trooper as rude but said the tow truck crew was nice. They got the truck back the same night, but it cost her $150, she said. 

Her family returned to the bridge, where Bolen saw other cars parking on the bridge. Bolen said that for the rest of the night, she didn’t leave her vehicle. 

“This is the first year this has ever happened,” Bolen said. “You’ve got hard-working people that work every day for their money. We have two children. A $150 tow expense is not what a family needs.”

Nick Haan, also an East Palatka resident, felt the same as Bolen did. He, too, got towed and had to pay $150. 

“This is the first time I’ve heard of this happening,” he said in an email.

Since childhood, Haan said, he has been attending local events and parking on the bridge. 

San Mateo residents John and Marlyn Rogers have also parked on the bridge numerous times but had to pick it up after it got towed July 4. 

“I feel the Highway Patrol should be consistent in imposing the rules if there is indeed a statute against parking on the bridge,” they stated in an email. “During the last Blue Crab Festival, the bridge was full of cars and all the previous years.”

Toward the end of Palatka’s Independence Day celebrations Tuesday evening, more cars filled up the bridge, but no one else got towed. 

Putnam County Sheriff Gator DeLoach spoke to FHP officials and asked troopers to stop having vehicles removed from the bridge, Bryan stated in an email. 

“Even though the trooper was doing nothing wrong by following the provisions of this state, this information was relayed to the trooper on scene and he refrained from towing any additional vehicles per the Sheriff's request,” he stated. 

FHP officials told Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and Palatka Police Department officials that bridge parking is “extremely unsafe and illegal,” Bryan said.

Bryan also referenced a crash that occurred on the bridge at 10 p.m. that same day. The crash involved a vehicle hitting a pedestrian, which resulted in serious injuries to the pedestrian. 

Bryan emphasized the crash happened “on the same bridge our trooper was attempting to keep safe.”

Parking on the bridge becomes a safety hazard, said Allison Waters-Merritt, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. The trooper didn’t do anything outside of the norm, she said.

All it takes is one vehicle to lose control on the bridge and emergency medical services employees could be dealing with numerous casualties if there are many people parked on the bridge, Waters-Merritt said. 

If the sheriff’s office would have known ahead of time that FHP was going to start towing vehicles, the county agency would have put an alert on social media, she said. 

“People need to follow the letter of the law,” Waters-Merritt said.