Truck accidents on Orlando’s toll roads

State Road 408, the East-West Expressway, crosses downtown Orlando. The Central Florida Expressway Authority says more than 164,000 vehicles a day travel it at its peak (opens in a new tab). That figure counts all vehicles, and the authority’s page gives no year for it.

State Road 528, the Beachline Expressway, runs east from I-4. The authority calls it a crucial connection for residents and visitors traveling to the Orlando International Airport, the east coast beaches and Cape Canaveral (opens in a new tab).

State Road 417, the Central Florida GreeneWay, is a 55-mile toll road (opens in a new tab). State Road 429, the Western Beltway, runs from U.S. Highway 441 in Apopka south to Interstate 4 in Osceola County (opens in a new tab). The authority describes it as an alternate north-south route to I-4 for west Orange and Osceola counties.

On the state’s 2023 counts, MetroPlan Orlando, the regional planning agency, puts Florida’s Turnpike and a portion of State Road 528 near the Taft area among the busiest roadways, carrying more than 15,000 trucks per day (opens in a new tab).

Two bodies. The Central Florida Expressway Authority is, in the words of the statute that created it, a body politic and corporate, an agency of the state (opens in a new tab). Florida’s Turnpike system is operated by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, part of the Florida Department of Transportation (opens in a new tab).

The split runs road by road. The authority operates all but the westernmost mile of State Road 408 (opens in a new tab) and the 33 miles of State Road 417 in Orange County (opens in a new tab). On State Road 528 the Turnpike Enterprise operates the westernmost eight miles, between I-4 and Boggy Creek Road, and the easternmost 15 miles (opens in a new tab), and the authority operates the 23 miles between them.

So the body that runs a toll road can change from one mile to the next. The Turnpike Enterprise operates the westernmost mile of State Road 408 and the rest of State Road 417, and on State Road 429 the authority’s page says the Enterprise completed the portion from Seidel Road south to Interstate 4 (opens in a new tab).

The authority also builds on its own roads. Its page for two projects on State Road 408, which carried lane closure notices when read in October 2026, gives a start in early 2026 and an estimated completion in early 2029 (opens in a new tab). The projects add an eastbound lane between Orange Blossom Trail and I-4 and rebuild the Tampa Avenue interchange.

It matters if your claim is against the body that runs the road. The statute that created the expressway authority calls it an agency of the state (opens in a new tab), and Florida’s government-claims statute covers the State and its agencies and subdivisions (opens in a new tab). How those rules apply to a particular body has to be checked before a claim is made. They are rules a claim against a trucking company does not follow.

Before a lawsuit can be filed, the claim must be presented in writing to the agency and, unless it is against a city or a county, to the Department of Financial Services as well, within 3 years after it accrues (opens in a new tab). In a wrongful death case the period is 2 years.

The amounts are limited. The State and its agencies and subdivisions cannot be made to pay more than $200,000 to one person or $300,000 for one incident (opens in a new tab) without a further act of the Legislature. A 2026 bill to raise those limits passed both chambers and was vetoed on June 30, 2026 (opens in a new tab).

Orange County and Osceola County make up Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab), and the circuit gives the address of the Orange County Courthouse as 425 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando (opens in a new tab).

Claims above $50,000 go to the circuit court. County courts hear cases up to that amount (opens in a new tab), and circuit courts hear the actions at law the county courts cannot (opens in a new tab).

When the claim is against the State or one of its agencies, there is a wait first. Once the written claim is presented, the government has 6 months to respond, or 90 days in a wrongful death case (opens in a new tab). If it does not, the claim is treated as denied and the suit can go ahead.