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3.7-1 Statutory Negligence - Reckless Driving
Revised to January 1, 2008
We have a statute that provides that no person shall
operate any motor vehicle upon any public highway of the state recklessly,
having regard to the width, traffic and use of such highway, the
intersection of streets and the weather conditions. A person operates a
motor vehicle recklessly when that person does so knowing or having reason
to know of facts that create a high degree of risk of physical harm to
another and deliberately proceeds to act in conscious disregard of, or with
indifference to, that risk. A person may also operate a motor vehicle
recklessly when that person does so knowing or having reason to know of
facts that create a high degree of risk, although a reasonable person in the
same circumstances would realize or appreciate that risk.
In addition to this general
definition of reckless driving, the statute further describes two specific
forms of reckless operation of a motor vehicle that constitute reckless
driving as a matter of law. The first is the operation of a motor vehicle
upon any public highway at such a rate of speed as to endanger the life of
any person other than the operator of the motor vehicle. The second is the
operation of a motor vehicle upon any public highway at a rate of speed
greater than eighty-five miles per hour.
If you find that the defendant
violated the reckless driving statute in any of the ways I have defined for
you, then the defendant was negligent.
Authority
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