When a person is driving a car, they have an obligation towards the people and have to be careful. When a person is not being cautious about the rules, they can end up involved in an accident and then need a qualified car accident lawyer to handle their case.
When you are on the road, you are prone to an accident that can be due to various reasons like reckless driving or driving under influence. The state has established a set of laws that are used to settle such cases. Let’s have a look at laws related to reckless driving more closely.
What is reckless driving?
Getting behind the steering wheel comes with a lot of responsibility and the person has to be well aware of the rules that are to be followed while driving. When somebody disregards these rules it may result in an accident and is counted as a traffic offense regardless of accident or not.
If a person who is being reckless while driving a vehicle gets in an accident that results in property damage or medical injury, they will have to recompensate for it as the law has a provision for it.
What is considered reckless driving?
Every state in the US has proper laws which address the violation of safe driving rules. The terms used for these violations can be different like “reckless driving”, ” dangerous driving”, or ” careless driving”; all these terms address the same traffic offenses.
There are some acts that are considered as a recklessness automatically in some states. For example, driving over the speed limit, getting into a race with another vehicle, alluding to a police officer, etc.
Reckless driving is considered to be a very serious traffic offense and is generally charged with a misdemeanor.
What punishment is received on this offense?
Different states across the US define the offense in a different manner and has different punishments for it. Some consider it a misdemeanor in every incident and others do not consider every recklessness as a misdemeanor.
Let us look at Florida as an example.
In Florida, if a person disregards the safety willfully or wanton while driving, or they flee a law enforcement officer is considered as reckless driving. The type of punishment received can range anywhere from a fine of $25 to $1000, and imprisonment of up to 5 years, depending on the intensity of the act.
Reckless driving is a serious offense and must not be taken lightly.