'No parking' signs along Longwood rest stop not working

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The "no parking signs" posted by crews with the Florida Department of Transportation as a way to limit the amount of truckers parking at a Longwood rest stop don't seem to be working.

The signs have been up for nearly a year.

Channel 9's Roy Ramos noticed within the past week that truck drivers have lined along the highway, mainly between 3 - 6 a.m.

“We don't have any parking, and we are going to make parking where we can get it,” said truck driver Barbie Teeter.

Teeter has been a truck driver the past seven years. She told Eyewitness News with laws that only allow commercial drivers to be on the road for eight hours at a time that when it is time for her to rest, the safety of herself and other drivers comes before a parking ticket.

“You have to pull over, and if I get too tired, I am driving an 80,000-pound bomb, that's how I look at it.  If I start noticing that I'm getting tired, I am going to pull over,” Teeter said.

The signs were initially put up to try to limit how many trucks park at the rest stop because homeowners who lived nearby were concerned about noise and pollution.

Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol said ticketing people who violate the signs is really a Catch-22. While they would like truck drivers to refrain from parking where the signs are posted, they are not actively issuing citations.

Troopers said the last thing they want is a trucker crashing because the trucker drove too long.

“If something happens, if you have an accident or something, it is going to be worse than staying on the side of the road,” said truck driver Luis Sandoval.

If a rest area is full, troopers said they would like drivers to move if they able to do so within their driving time limits.

Cox Media Group