grey`eagle wrote:
“The catch all” paragraph that causes more heartburn that any one of the other CFR’s is plainly stated “ careless and reckless operation”
What is the definition of "careless and reckless"? When going to court a LEO is going to have to show some legal basis to what exactly is "careless and reckless". An individual LEO's personal belief won't fly in court. Example: A LEO doesn't think 16 yr olds have enough experience to be considered safe drivers. That same LEO stops a 16 yr old for speeding 95 MPH. The cite is speeding, not "careless and reckless" even tho the LEO's personal belief is 16 yr olds don't have the experience to drive 95 MPH.
IL has the statute, as do all states worded one way or another, of reckless driving. That statute in itself is pretty non-descript. However, one has to look at court rulings to determine how the law is applied. For these statutes to be legally and Constitutionally valid laws have to specify the exact elements of the crime or violation. In the "reckless and careless" statutes the courts have ruled that it requires specifying what illegal acts constituted the "reckless and careless" violation. As an example, someone pulls out of a parking lot without stopping in front of oncoming traffic, loses traction, and slide sideways into the adjoining lane. Violations are failing to stop exiting a private drive, failure to yield to oncoming traffic, and improper lane usage. Instead of writing the 3 separate violations those 3 violations can be lumped under "reckless and careless". So when going to court the LEO can explain exactly which illegal acts warranted a "reckless and careless" charge. Take the same example above but change it so the only violation is the driver swerved into another lane when exiting. There are not a series of events which shows "reckless and careless" actions but only improper lane usage. The courts have said 1 violation is not "reckless and careless" but is a violation of the specific statute.
Same would be the case if a person would happen to be overweight on axle. As an example, a person drives a truck with 40K on a tandum axle. He's 6000K over the legal limit. It's not "reckless and careless", just overweight on axles. Now if that person is hauling 40K on a truck which has a broken spring, blown pancake on the brakes, and a defective tire, those violations in combination might constitute a "reckless and careless" citation. Any of those individually would not. However, realistically, when inspecting a commercial hauler with those violations all of the individual violations would be cited instead of lumping them all into "reckless and careless". Reason being is the MCS inspection for the separate violations would be a bigger bite on the company than 1 single "reckless and careless" charge which is not an MCS cite.
