Payment of toll on toll facilities required; exemptions.

(1)(a) A person may not use a toll facility without payment of tolls, except:

1. An employee of the agency operating the toll project when using the toll facility on official state business.

2. State military personnel while on official military business.

3. A person with a disability as provided in subsection (3).

4. A person exempt from toll payment by the authorizing resolution for bonds issued to finance the facility.

5. A person exempt on a temporary basis where use of such toll facility is required as a detour route.

6. A law enforcement officer operating an official vehicle while on official law enforcement business.

7. A person operating a fire vehicle while on official business or a rescue vehicle while on official business.

8. A person participating in the funeral procession of a law enforcement officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty.

(b) The secretary or the secretary’s designee may suspend the payment of tolls on a toll facility when necessary to assist in emergency evacuation.

(c) The failure to pay a prescribed toll constitutes a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a moving violation as provided in s. 318.18. The department may adopt rules relating to the payment, collection, and enforcement of tolls, as authorized in this chapter and chapters 316, 318, 320, and 322, including, but not limited to, rules for the implementation of video or other image billing and variable pricing.

(d) With respect to toll facilities managed by the department the revenues of which are not pledged to repayment of bonds, the department may by rule allow the use of such facilities by public transit vehicles or by vehicles participating in a funeral procession for an active-duty military servicemember without the payment of tolls.

(2) Any person driving an automobile or other vehicle belonging to the Department of Military Affairs used for transporting military personnel, stores, and property, when properly identified, shall, together with any such conveyance and military personnel and property of the state in his or her charge, be allowed to pass free through all tollgates and over all toll bridges and ferries in this state.

(3) A person with a disability who has a valid driver license, who operates a vehicle specially equipped for use by persons with disabilities, and who is certified by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459 or by comparable licensing in another state or by the Adjudication Office of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or its predecessor as being severely physically disabled and having permanent upper limb mobility or dexterity impairments that substantially impair the person’s ability to deposit coins in toll baskets shall be allowed to pass free through all tollgates and over all toll bridges and ferries in this state. Such person shall, upon application, be issued a vehicle window sticker by the Department of Transportation.

(4) A copy of this section shall be posted at each toll bridge and on each ferry.

(5) The Department of Transportation shall provide envelopes for voluntary payments of tolls by those persons exempted from the payment of tolls pursuant to this section. The department shall accept any voluntary payments made by exempt persons.

(6) Personal identifying information held by the Department of Transportation, a county, a municipality, or an expressway authority for the purpose of paying, prepaying, or collecting tolls and associated administrative charges due for the use of toll facilities is exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution. This exemption applies to such information held by the Department of Transportation, a county, a municipality, or an expressway authority before, on, or after the effective date of the exemption.