Former NC congressman named in crash report. Why he was cited in updated Florida traffic law

A citation report naming former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn has been issued by the Florida Highway Patrol days after witnesses say he crashed into the back of a Florida state trooper’s car in a construction zone on I-75 in Collier County on April 15.

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The trooper sustained minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital after the crash, Florida Highway Patrol had said. Cawthorn, 28, was a Republican representative for North Carolina elected in 2021. He served one term that ended in 2023 after he lost a reelection bid to former state Sen. Chuck Edwards.

According to the citation, which lists his full name as David Madison Cawthorn of Cape Coral, the former congressman was charged with violating Florida’s recently reinforced Move Over Law.

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The new amendment to a 2002 traffic law, enacted and heavily promoted in January by members of FHP and the Florida Department of Transportation, requires drivers to shift over one lane — or reduce speed if moving into another lane isn’t safe — for “any stopped law enforcement, emergency, sanitation, and utility service vehicles, tow trucks or wreckers, and maintenance or construction vehicles with displayed warning lights.”

Cawthorn’s violation, according to the Collier County citation, is that he “failed to move over for a FHP unit with emergency lights activated.” Failure to move over for emergency/wreckers/sanitation/utility service vehicle was also listed.

Cawthorn was not charged with any other traffic offense. The civil penalty is listed at $133.

According to FHP Policy 17.06, “In the case of two or more hazardous moving violations, members shall charge the offense with the best available evidence and only make one charge, except when a DUI or other serious incident (misdemeanor, felony) may require an additional charge.”

Lt. Jim Beauford, in an email response to the Miami Herald, noted he was not the crash investigator, nor did he advise or suggest that more than one hazardous moving violation occurred during the accident between Cawthorn and the trooper. The chief of public affairs for FHP pointed to the department’s policy and said in general “that if more than one hazardous moving violation occurred in a crash, then it would be routine in nature for the investigating trooper to only cite the offense with the best available evidence and only make one charge.”

Cawthorn could not be reached by telephone for comment. There was no response to an email query.

According to a Miami Herald story a day after Monday’s accident, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz rear-ended a Florida Highway Patrol Dodge Charger in a construction zone in Collier County, according to an FHP statement.

The agency didn’t identify Cawthorn as the driver at the time. But a woman posted a TikTok video on X on Monday afternoon after the crash. The post and her text show what appeared to be the former congressman in his wheelchair on the side of the highway near the Mercedes-Benz. The black car had front end damage. The man she identified in all-caps as congressman Cawthorn was also seen speaking with an FHP trooper.

Cawthorn was partially paralyzed in a 2014 car crash near Daytona Beach while traveling back to North Carolina from a spring break trip to Florida.

The woman, who said she was heading to Miami at the time of Monday’s accident on I-75, said in her post that the same black tinted sports car involved in the crash with the FHP trooper had been “tailgating me relentlessly” just minutes before she came upon the scene at the construction site. She said she did not see the crash, but that she saw the aftermath.

Florida’s new Move Over law

Cawthorn’s citation for violating Florida’s rebooted “Move Over” law refers to the traffic rule that now requires drivers to move over a lane or at least slow down substantially or to a pace at least 20 miles under the posted speed limit when they see any stopped vehicle on the side of the road. Previously, the 22-year-old law only covered emergency and other official vehicles.

The penalty can range from $60 to $158.

“The easiest thing to remember is that if you see a vehicle stopped on the side of the road — regardless of what it is — just move over. It’s a common courtesy and it’s now the law,” Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alex Camacho told the Miami Herald in January from FHP headquarters near Florida’s Turnpike.

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