Even though it is often moms in minivans doing the “reckless driving” (statutorily speaking). Unless, of course, you go 5 MPH faster than that. Today, it’s a minor speeding ticket to do the same thing. Under the old 55 limit – in force for more than 20 years, finally repealed in the mid-’90s – it was statutory reckless driving to be traveling 76 MPH on the Interstate. Everyone knows they’re just numbers – typically set several notches below the routine, average speed of traffic to say nothing of the maximum safe speed for that road. Which, as everyone – including cops and judges and the people who write the laws – knows can’t be described as the Maximum Safe Speed for the road. This has been true forever, or at least, as long as we have had speed limits. For the next 11 years.Īnyone who has driven on a highway lately – or anywhere else, for that matter – knows that traffic normally flows at 5 or 10 MPH faster than the limit. Or rather, you will be forced to pay usurious insurance premiums – typically two or three times what you were paying before. And you will pay your lawyer thousands more on top of that to defend you from the worst (jail) and hope he can get the charge reduced to something that doesn’t carry with it the prospect of a couple of months in Oz.īut even if he keeps you out of the clink, the lawyer can’t shield you from the harshest punishment they will throw at you: They will suspend your driving privileges for at least six months and for the next 11 years, that “reckless driving” cite will remain on your DMV record (along with six “demerit points”) and as a result, you will be all but uninsurable. And he can fine you thousands (up to $2,500). Though it’s not commonly done, the judge can throw you in jail for up to a year. At court, you’d better bring a top-drawer shyster – because if you are convicted, the penalties will be severe. If he is “nice,” he will merely give you a piece of paper that tells you that you are ordered to appear in court to face the charge. The cop can (at his discretion) arrest you on the spot. This involves no ordinary mail-it-in speeding ticket. Exceeding speed limit. – A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who drives a motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth (i) at a speed of twenty miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit or (ii) in excess of eighty miles per hour regardless of the applicable maximum speed limit. Though it’s not well-known, Virginia law defines merely driving 20 or more over the limit, or faster than 80 MPH, as statutory “reckless driving.” If not, then don’t drive in Virginia without your radar detector on. Not doing anything, in fact, except driving faster than “x” MPH – regardless of context, regardless of circumstance – and absent any demonstrable harm, much less an actual victim? Not driving the wrong way down the highway. #Drunk or dead ridiculousness fullDo you think it’s reasonable to put someone in jail for up to a full year, fine them thousands of dollars (not counting lawyer fees) and then punish them for an additional 11 years by making it certain that they will have to pay two or three times what the average person pays to insure their car – merely for driving more than 20 MPH above the posted speed limit (no matter what the speed limit is) or faster than 80 MPH, anywhere? Not running over toddlers while rip-roaring drunk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |