Rolling coal is a practice where owners of diesel trucks tamper with the emissions control settings on their trucks to enable them to belch out excessive amounts of thick, black exhaust smoke. The act of coal rolling has long been a practice that some truck owners do to express opposition to protestors, bicyclists, electric cars, or even runners. In recent years, the act of rolling coal has gained more notoriety, which is partly due to the circulation of social media videos showing truck drivers rolling coal as a way to prank others.
However, rolling coal isn't as harmless a prank as it might seem. In addition to releasing excessive amounts of toxic exhaust fumes into the environment, a practice that could have long-lasting and genuine consequences for our planet, it also limits visibility for drivers on the road and causes pedestrians and other drivers to directly inhale harmful chemicals. But is the practice legal? This question is a bit trickier to answer.
Is Rolling Coal Illegal in Florida?
It's complicated to say whether rolling coal is illegal in Florida. This is because while federal law dictates that aftermarket tampering with emissions control technology on vehicles is illegal, no state law in Florida expressly forbids it. The EPA stated in July 2014 that rolling coal violates the Clean Air Act, and in 2020, it issued a report that detailed just how widespread the practice had become.Â
However, the EPA isn't in the practice of pulling people over and fining them for having a truck that's capable of rolling coal. In an effort to curtail the practice of tricking out trucks to accomplish this feat, the EPA has recently started directing its efforts toward performance shops that are known to tinker with emissions controls.Â
In March 2021, the EPA sued EZ Lynk, a service shop based in the Cayman Islands, over its known practice of modifying trucks to emit excessive exhaust. Similarly, the EPA fined the stars of a Discovery Channel reality television show called "Diesel Brothers" for just over $850,000 for bypassing emissions controls on the trucks featured on their show.
State laws are the more practical route to follow if you want to fine individual truck owners for the practice of rolling coal. However, there are currently only 10 states that have laws in the books that would make rolling coal illegal, and of these, only a handful specifically call rolling coal by name, leaving the wording a bit ambiguous. Fines and penalties for rolling coal vary greatly from state to state, with fines ranging anywhere from $100 in Colorado to $5,000 in New Jersey.
Florida has no law in the books expressly prohibiting rolling coal. The law that comes closest to covering the topic of rolling coal is Section 316.2935 of the Florida Statutes. This law states that diesel-fueled vehicles can't emit visible exhaust for more than five continuous seconds except while accelerating, lugging, or decelerating. This, of course, means that there's an opportunity to roll coal for up to five seconds at a time.
Why Do Truck Drivers Roll Coal?
Rolling coal is an act that's largely unique to America and parts of Canada. Reasons for rolling coal vary from anti-environmentalism and expressing disgust at people with differing views to more innocuous intentions such as pranking bystanders for views on social media.Â
In 2021, a video of a truck billowing clouds of exhaust smoke into a crowded Whataburger went viral. The video showed the fast-food restaurant filled with teenagers following a nearby football game when someone opened the front door to allow a truck outside to unleash the large plumes of smoke into the restaurant before speeding away. The teens inside can be seen grappling to get to the side of the restaurant that was still smoke-free. The intention behind this particular driver's prank is unknown.
There are other times when rolling coal has a much more nefarious intent. Many drivers who roll coal have anti-environmentalist viewpoints and target drivers of Teslas or other electric vehicles to make a statement against their environmentally conservative nature.Â
In 2019, a case in Clearwater, Florida, involved a husband and wife driving their Tesla when a Ford F-350 came speeding up to them, rolling coal during an attempt to cut them off. The driver of the truck swerved into their lane, smashing into the Tesla's front left fender before speeding off. Cases like this show that rolling coal can have serious impacts on roadways.
Why Is Rolling Coal Bad?
The obvious downside to rolling coal is the environmental impact. Vehicles have controls on emissions for a reason, and these controls are becoming increasingly important with the growing number of cars on the road. When the EPA created its report on rolling coal in 2020, it estimated that as many as 550,000 medium-sized trucks have had their emissions systems modified, and these trucks have led to an excess of 570,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and 5,000 tons of excess diesel particulates flowing into the atmosphere.
Rolling coal is also not very practical in terms of fuel consumption. Truck drivers who roll coal are just wasting precious diesel fuel and throwing money down the drain. Filling the tank of a diesel truck isn't cheap, and most responsible drivers are looking for ways to make their trucks more fuel-efficient.
There are serious consequences for other drivers as well. Drivers who have become the victims of rolling coal experience a severe lack of visibility, making them far more likely to crash. Truck drivers who engage in rolling coal also tend to be reckless with their driving maneuvers. In fact, in 2021, a 16-year-old boy from Texas attempting to roll coal on some cyclists got a bit too close and hit six of the cyclists.Â
Ultimately, rolling coal is reckless behavior that violates the EPA's Clean Air Act, making it illegal on the federal level. On the state level, Florida, like most states, doesn't have a law directly stating that rolling coal is illegal. However, the impact on the environment, plus the generally heedless nature of the act, makes it an activity worth skipping.Â
Image by webandi  is licensed with Pixabay License