Q: I’ve heard that if you drive at twice the speed limit instead of getting a speeding ticket you’ll get arrested. Is that true?
A: While driving at double the speed limit is bound to get you in some trouble, I’m not aware of any equation, at least in Washington, that automatically moves a speeder from infraction territory to a crime. That’s not to say that you can’t get arrested for speeding; just that there isn’t a pre-set threshold. It’s actually more complicated than that.
Back in 1979 the Washington legislature chose to decriminalize most traffic violations. For those of us who got our driver licenses after 1979, yes, there was a time when speeding was a crime. (And in some states it is still a crime.) Under current Washington law the more serious violations, such as reckless driving and impaired driving, are still criminal violations, but speeding and most other traffic violations are traffic infractions.
However, there’s a section in the law titled, “Exceeding speed limit evidence of reckless driving.” As you might guess from the title, it states that “The unlawful operation of a vehicle in excess of the maximum lawful speeds . . . shall be prima facie evidence of the operation of a motor vehicle in a reckless manner . . .” That kind of makes it sound like speeding automatically makes you guilty of reckless driving, a criminal violation.
Yes, the law can be confusing sometimes, partly because unless you’re a chemist, biologist or lawyer you probably don’t use Latin on a regular basis. The term “prima facie” is translated “at first sight.” In the context of reckless driving, speeding is (and apologies to the lawyers who could explain this better) the initial piece of evidence of reckless behavior. Throwing around Latin words makes it sound like an open-and-shut case, but in the instance of “prima facie” it just describes a starting point for the investigation.
If we look at the law that describes the elements of reckless driving we’ll see it defined as any person who drives “in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.” Recklessness requires some intent. As an example, if you were driving ten miles an hour over the speed limit and, with no other contributing factors, were arrested for reckless driving (and I can’t imagine that would ever happen) your defense might be that you didn’t even realize you were speeding because you hadn’t looked at your speedometer in a few miles. That doesn’t make it right, but without willful disregard it doesn’t meet the definition of reckless driving.
I’m not making any presumptions about the law here. There was a court case back in 1992 that essentially reached the same conclusion; you can’t reach a guilty verdict for reckless driving on speed alone. In the case of Schwendeman v. Wallenstein, the evidence for reckless driving was clear. After a couple hours drinking at a bar, Schwendeman and his friends loaded into his pickup, with two passengers in the cab and four in the bed. Schwendeman admitted to driving 37 mph in a 25 mph zone; one of his passengers testified that it was more like 50 mph. He swerved back and forth on the road, trying to avoid potholes according to his testimony; his passengers said he was trying to hit them. He accelerated to the point that passengers in the back were being tossed around, and about the time one of the passengers in the bed pounded on the window, shouting at him to slow down, he lost control of his truck and crashed into a telephone pole, injuring his passengers.
This is a clear-cut case of reckless driving (or in this case vehicular assault, as recklessness is an element of vehicular assault), but the jury instructions allowed for reaching a guilty verdict based only on the fact that Schwendeman was speeding. Schwendeman was convicted of vehicular assault, but after several appeals the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the jury instructions were wrong and that Schwendeman should be given another trial.
While speed is often a factor in reckless driving, it’s the totality of the circumstances that lead an investigating officer to arrest a driver for reckless driving. Driving over the speed limit on an empty, straight rural road is different than driving over the limit through an urban intersection. To be clear, speeding is a high-risk driving behavior- about a third of fatal crashes in Washington last year involved speed. But the law recognizes that when speed is part of reckless behavior it is a more serious offense and is treated accordingly.