Best Defense For Reckless Driving – 5 Ways To Beat The Charge

The 5 best and most common defense strategies for a reckless driving charge are:

1. you were not the driver of the vehicle,
2. the driving may have been negligent or careless, but was not reckless,
3. you were merely distracted, rather than reckless,
4. if the charge stems from your speed, that the radar gun was not used or correctly calibrated, and
5. you were driving recklessly out of necessity.

Not all of these defenses will be strong in any given case. In most cases, only one will be a viable defense strategy. A criminal defense lawyer from a law firm in the local area will have the experience to tell which one will be the most effective.

You were not the driver

To prove a case of reckless driving, the district attorney has to show that it was you who was driving the vehicle. If they cannot prove this beyond a reasonable doubt, it can lead to an acquittal or the charges can be dropped.

The identity of the driver can be an issue when you:

• let someone else borrow your vehicle,
• were a passenger in the car when it was pulled over, or
• were not present at all, but the person who was driving recklessly lied to the police by falsely claiming to be you.

For example: Clarisse is pulled over and ticketed for reckless driving. When the police ask for Clarisse’s identification, she provides the ID of her friend, Amy, instead. Amy is then charged with reckless driving.

The driving was bad, but not reckless

Reckless driving is a well-defined term. In California, for example, reckless driving requires driving a vehicle:

• on a highway or an off-street parking facility, and
• with wanton disregard for the safety of other people or property.¹

Driving with a wanton disregard involves both:

• an awareness that it creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm, and
• intentionally ignoring that risk.²

It does not, however, require an intention to cause damage or injuries.

Without more, driving above the speed limit does not automatically make it a violation of reckless driving law.³ These instances are often handled with a mere speeding ticket, instead.

This makes plenty of poor driving choices fall short of the threshold needed for reckless driving. Many defense strategies rely on evidence that shows that you were merely:

• negligent,
• going too fast, or
• making a bad driving decision.

While these can defend against a serious charge of reckless driving, they can lead to lesser traffic infractions.

Driving while distracted

Similarly, another possible defense to a reckless driving allegation is that you were merely distracted.

Reckless driving requires an awareness that the driving is very unsafe, and then ignoring the risks. If you drive poorly because you are distracted, you do not have that awareness. You are only driving poorly because you are not paying attention to what you are doing.

The radar gun was unreliable

If the particular case relies on your speed, then challenging the reliability of the radar gun can be a strong defense to criminal charges of reckless driving.

Radar guns have to be used properly and have to be regularly calibrated. If it was not maintained, or if the police officer was not adequately trained in using it, the reading could be unreliable.

Necessity

The legal defense of necessity is that you had a sufficiently good reason to commit the offense and had no other alternative. It would admit to reckless driving, but would argue that you had to drive recklessly.

Necessity can be a strong defense if:

• you were under duress, like if you were fleeing from someone who was trying to kill you, or
• there was an emergency, or
• you were trying to prevent a much greater harm.

Can these defenses be used in a dry reckless plea bargain in DUI cases?

No, because you would be pleading guilty to reckless driving in order to avoid a conviction for driving under the influence (DUI).

Prosecutors pursuing a DUI case will sometimes offer reckless driving as a plea bargain. You would admit to a less severe offense of reckless driving in order to have the DUI charges dismissed.

This plea bargain is often referred to as a “dry reckless” plea deal. If you take the plea deal, you will not be subjected to some of the penalties for a DUI offense, like a mandatory jail sentence or license suspension.

However, by pleading guilty to reckless driving, you waive your legal defenses to that charge. You will not be allowed to raise any of these common defenses to reckless driving. Your case will go straight to sentencing, instead.

What are the penalties for a conviction?

In the state of California, reckless driving is a misdemeanor. Convictions, even for a first offense, carry up to:

• 90 days in county jail, and/or
• a fine of between $145 and $1,000.

However, if there was a minor injury due to the reckless driving, the penalties increase to:

• between 30 days and 1 year of jail time, and/or
• a fine of between $220 and $1,000.⁴

If the reckless driving produced a serious bodily injury in California, the penalties increase even further. These offenses are wobblers that can be pursued by law enforcement as a misdemeanor or as a felony. Convictions for a felony charge carry up to:

• 3 years in state prison, and/or
• $10,000 in fines.⁵

Your vehicle can even be impounded for these serious offenses. Establishing an attorney-client relationship and getting the legal advice of a reckless driving defense attorney is the best way to fight this serious criminal offense.

This is in addition to the sanctions that come with a serious traffic violation like a reckless driving case. Reckless driving tickets will come with other threats to your driving privileges, like:

• 2 points being added by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to your driving record,
• a potential driver’s license suspension or revocation,
• an increase in insurance rates, as insurers see you as a bigger risk, and
• the inconvenience of getting a moving violation or traffic ticket.

The reckless driving conviction will also appear on your criminal record.

Additional resources

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• Deportation and Driving: Felony DUI and Reckless Driving as Crimes of Violence following Leocal v. Ashcroft – Journal of Crime & Criminology.
• Criminal Law: Reckless Driving Is Not a Lesser Included Offense of Driving While under the Influence of Alcohol – Washburn Law Journal.
• Reckless and Careless Driving: Is There a Difference? – The Journal of Criminal Law.
• Sociodemographic, behavioral, and substance use correlates of reckless driving in the United States: Findings from a national Sample – Journal of Psychiatric Research.
  
• Death on the Highway: Reckless Driving as Murder – Oregon Law Review.

---