Virginia Beach Reckless Driving By Not Under Control Charges
Reckless driving by operating a vehicle not under your control typically refers to driving with faulty brakes or recklessly operating a vehicle that’s generally not under your control. The common ways that this is charged is when someone swerves to avoid hitting something in the road and then that action leads to some sort of incident or it leads to an accident. Another common way is if someone has some kind of accident due to the fact that their brakes failed. If you are facing this charge, penalties can be serious which means consulting with a Virginia Beach reckless driving lawyer is imperative. To learn more call and schedule a consultation today.
Evidence Used In This Type of Case
In these types of cases the officer presents evidence generally to show that the defendant lost control of the vehicle or that their brakes weren’t working. These are both very difficult to prove without the defendant admitting such or without the officer himself having witnessed the incident firsthand. A lawyer can cross examine the officer’s allegations and testimony to demonstrate that either the driver’s loss of control wasn’t his fault or that the brakes were working fine beforehand and the driver had no warning that they were going to not function.
Can You Still Be Charged If Your Car Passed Inspection?
You can be charged by having a vehicle that passed inspection because there may be other indicators that your brake lights weren’t working or your brakes were faulty or there’s any number of things that could have gone wrong for a vehicle that still passed inspection. You can also be charged regardless of anything happening to your vehicle if you were driving in a manner that resulted in a loss of control, such as driving in the rain at a speed that may have been following the speed limit but resulted in skidding; the driver should have known better to adjust their speed for the weather conditions.
Legal Excuses For a Vehicle Not Being Under Your Control
There are a few reasons why someone could lose control of their vehicle through no fault of their own. Somebody could be driving and then, all of a sudden, there could be an object on the road unexpectedly, which could cause the driver to swerve to avoid hitting it. Or somebody could swerve to avoid another driver who was doing something illegal, which could cause someone who is complying with the law to lose control of their own vehicle. For faulty brakes, an excuse could be that the driver didn’t know or had no warning at all that his brakes were faulty, therefore he wasn’t negligent when his brakes did fail and thus the situation wasn’t his fault and could not be avoided.
Can a Charge Be The Fault of a Mechanic?
It could be but it’s something that would need to be proven in court, it’s not very likely that a mechanic would find an issue with somebody’s brakes and then disregard it or not mention it . Mechanics obviously want to make their money and they have to tell drivers whenever something is wrong. If the defendant can prove in court that there was a mechanic who found an issue with the driver’s vehicle but did not warn him or bring it to his attention at all,then there is a pretty strong likelihood that this sort of defense would be accepted.
How This Charge Is Different From Other Reckless Driving Charges
When the charge is faulty brakes, the charge is different because the behavior of the driver that is at issue has more to do with things that the drivers didn’t do before he got into the vehicle, such as he didn’t maintain his brakes, rather than in reckless driving by speed where the behavior that is being attacked is what the driver is doing actively at the time of the incident. Someone with faulty brakes is really being accused of being reckless before they drive, whereas someone who is charged with reckless driving by speed is being accused of operating a vehicle recklessly at the time that they’re pulled over.
Impact on CDL License Holders
For purposes of a commercial drivers’ license, reckless driving is considered a serious violation. Two serious violations in three years leads to a 60 day disqualification of their commercial drivers’ license. Three or more convictions for serious violations in three years results in a 120 day disqualification of the commercial driver’s license.
While your commercial drivers’ license is disqualified, you’re not allowed to drive a commercial vehicle at all. You can face disqualification even when you’re driving your own personal non commercial vehicle when you’re charged. This is important for commercial drivers’ license holders to keep in mind because they’ve not off the hook for safe driving when they’re driving their station wagon to a mall with their children and they should always be on alert for violations that could affect their commercial drivers’ license.
How An Attorney Can Help
Before trial an attorney can help you gather evidence to show the paper trail that would demonstrate that you have been routinely having your vehicle inspected, all the repairs are up to date and that everything has been done in a timely manner. An attorney can explain what the officer has to prove in order for you to be convicted and can help you figure out what sort of evidence you should be gathering in order to refute the officer’s testimony.
An attorney can also help you figure out if you have a defense at all, and what are other steps that you need to take in preparation for court that may mitigate the penalties. Call today to begin building your defense.