On This Page
What a Right Hook Is
A right hook has two forms. In the first, a driver overtakes a rider and then immediately turns right across the path they have just passed — the rider is traveling straight at speed and the vehicle cuts the line off. In the second, a driver waiting to turn right at an intersection begins the turn as a rider comes up alongside on the right, in a bicycle lane or at the edge of the roadway.
Both put the rider into the side of a vehicle that is moving across them, usually with no room to go and very little time. E-bikes appear in these crashes disproportionately for a mechanical reason rather than a behavioral one: a driver judges the closing distance of a cyclist from experience, and an e-bike arrives sooner than that judgment expects.
That misjudgement is not a defense. The statute below does not ask what the driver expected — it sets a measurable condition that must be satisfied before the turn is lawful.
The 20-Foot Rule Most People Have Never Heard Of
Florida's turning statute contains a provision written specifically for a driver who has just passed a bicycle. Fla. Stat. § 316.151(1)(a)2. provides that a driver, “when overtaking and passing a bicycle proceeding in the same direction,” must “give an appropriate signal as provided for in s. 316.156 and make the right turn only if the bicycle is at least 20 feet from the intersection, and is of such a distance that the driver of a vehicle may safely turn.”
Read the conditions separately, because a driver must satisfy all of them:
- A signal is required, given as § 316.156 provides. Turning without one fails the subsection on its own terms.
- The bicycle must be at least 20 feet from the intersection. This is a fixed, measurable distance — unusually concrete for a traffic rule, and it means a right hook can often be assessed from the geometry rather than from competing accounts.
- And the distance must be such that the turn can be made safely. Twenty feet is a minimum, not a permission slip. A rider closing quickly at 20 feet does not satisfy the second condition merely by satisfying the first.
Alongside it, § 316.151(1)(a) requires a driver to “make both the approach for a right turn and a right turn as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.” A driver who turns right from the middle of the lane, across a bicycle lane they never entered, has usually breached that requirement before the 20-foot question is even reached.
David I. Shiner, Esq.
Founder, Shiner Law Group · AV Preeminent® rated · Florida Bar member since 2002
David I. Shiner founded Shiner Law Group and has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2002. He is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University’s law school and holds an AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell. The firm represents injured people across Florida from offices in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Wellington, and Belle Glade, and handles these cases on a contingency basis with free consultations and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Being in the Bike Lane Is Not a Fault
The argument made against right-hooked riders is that they came up the inside. It has an answer in the statute.
Fla. Stat. § 316.2065(5)(a) requires a person operating a bicycle at less than the normal speed of traffic to ride in the bicycle lane or, if there is none, as close as practicable to the right-hand curb. A rider in a marked bicycle lane approaching an intersection is where the statute directs them to be, in a lane the road authority painted and continued to that intersection.
Fla. Stat. § 316.20655(7) reinforces it for e-bikes: an operator “may ride an electric bicycle where bicycles are allowed, including, but not limited to, streets, highways, roadways, shoulders, bicycle lanes, and bicycle or multiuse paths.” Bicycle lanes are named expressly.
Where a bicycle lane runs to the corner with no turn box, no dashed merge zone, and no signal phase separating the movements, the design itself put a straight-through rider and a right-turning driver into the same square of asphalt. That can put the road authority in the case, subject to the caps and the 3-year presentment deadline in Fla. Stat. § 768.28(5) and (6)(a).
Cut Off by a Right-Turning Driver?
Shiner Law Group offers free case reviews for Florida e-bike riders — 24/7, no fee unless you win.
Get My Free Case ReviewShiner Law Group, P.A. · Attorney Advertising
What Proves a Right Hook
Right hooks are unusually provable, because § 316.151(1)(a)2. gives a measurable condition rather than a judgment call. The evidence that answers it degrades quickly.
| Evidence | What It Establishes |
|---|---|
| Where the vehicle stopped | Position relative to the crosswalk and the bicycle lane goes directly to whether the approach was made “as close as practicable to the right-hand curb” under § 316.151(1)(a). |
| Where you and the bicycle came to rest | Together with the vehicle's position this reconstructs the closing geometry the 20-foot rule turns on. |
| The lane markings | Whether the bicycle lane is solid to the corner, dashed, or ends early. Photograph it — lane paint is repainted and reconfigured. |
| Signal evidence | § 316.151(1)(a)2. requires a signal under § 316.156. Witnesses, dashcams, and business cameras are the usual sources, and footage is overwritten in days. |
| Damage pattern on the vehicle | Impact on the right front quarter versus the right rear tells you where in the turn the contact happened. |
Because § 768.81(6) bars recovery entirely above 50 percent fault, and because the driver's account will usually be that the rider “came out of nowhere,” the physical evidence gathered in the first days is what decides these cases.