Traffic violations vs. speeding tickets…
Folks who have been pulled over and received speeding tickets are often curious how that differs from another term they’ve heard at one point or another. The simple answer is that a “traffic violation” is a blanket term that applies to a variety of moving violations. Speeding tickets fall within this group.
Simply put, a speeding ticket is a type of traffic violation.
In this post, we’ll go over the other common types of traffic violations and what you should know about each — should any apply to your situation.
Passing A School Bus Or Failure To Yield
In either of these cases, the rules of the road dictated that you needed to stop and yield to someone else. Not doing so creates an unsafe condition for others.
Failure to yield can be fairly minor, such as going out of order at a 4-way stop or running a stop sign.
Passing a school bus when the stop sign is out is treated more seriously because children are crossing the street, and passing the bus puts lives directly at risk.
In much the same way, speeding in a work zone will result in an additional charge on top of your speeding ticket. Again, speeding in an area where people are working puts lives directly at risk. You can generally expect to pay a higher fine in cases where your speeding charge occurred in a work zone.
These are all more serious offenses that add points to your license, and can significantly increase your auto insurance rates.
Call us today to discuss your case!
Failing To Signal, Illegal Turn, and Illegal Passing
Each of these involves failing to acknowledge some circumstance on the road that creates an unsafe situation for others. Often, these traffic violations are caused by being distracted in some way or another.
Failing to signal usually occurs when you realize at the last second you needed to make a turn, and illegal turns can be U-turns in an area not marked for it or turning left where a sign prohibits doing so.
Illegal passing occurs when you pass another vehicle in a double solid section of road where passing is prohibited. It can also be an illegal pass if doing so creates an unsafe scenario, such as passing someone through an intersection or passing in a school zone or work zone. Illegal passing is often an aggressive move and very often generates a reckless driving charge as well.
Driving Under The Influence
Driving under the influence is a much more serious offense that involves drugs or alcohol while driving. Essentially, it means someone is driving while mentally compromised by a substance that diminishes their reaction speeds and decision making and creates danger for others.
Legally speaking, this means a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher (0.04 for commercial vehicles).
There are 5 levels of driving under the influence, which vary by factors such as:
- How high one’s blood alcohol content was at the time of being pulled over.
- Whether the driver was transporting others, especially children, in the vehicle and therefore putting their lives at risk.
- Getting into an actual accident where damage and injury occurs.
- Whether this is a first time or repeat offense.
It’s important to note that each of these levels, even the least severe, can mean jail time. That jail time could be as little as 24 hours, but in more severe cases it could be 30 days minimum and up to 2 years.
For these types of traffic violations you definitely want to contact a traffic attorney because there is so much at stake.
Aside potential jail time, driving under the influence can also lead to expensive fines, points on the license, and even having the license suspended.
Note: DUIs are not cases we typically handle and we include the information here merely to educate.
Reckless Driving
This is a big one, and is usually the result of speeding in excess of 15 MPH of the speed limit. It’s in the police officer’s discretion to add a charge of reckless driving onto your speeding offense.
Reckless driving is a more serious offense that can sometimes lead to your driver’s license being suspended on the spot. In addition, a reckless driving violation on your record can increase your auto insurance rates significantly — as much as 80%!
Reckless driving can also include actions that law enforcement deems to have been made without due care on the road, such as running red lights without slowing down, aggressive and dangerous lane changes, or failing to yield to pedestrians and nearly being in an accident.
It’s important to note that you don’t have to cause an accident to be charged with reckless driving, in the eyes of the law.
If you receive a reckless driving violation, especially if your license has been suspended, we urge you to contact a traffic attorney as soon as you can.
Call us today!
(336) 995-0060
Will McElwee has been a traffic attorney for over 25 years, and has established a solid track record helping folks from Boone and Wilkesboro to Winston Salem address traffic tickets. His family has a long and fruitful history in the area: the McElwee Law Firm began in 1932. Will’s grandfather, William H. McElwee, Jr., was a former president of the North Carolina Bar and sat on North Carolina’s Board of Law Examiners for many years.
As a “Double Deac,” Will attended Wake Forest University for both undergraduate and law school. He is a certified Superior Court and Family Financial Mediator and is also certified in the field of collaborative law.
