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Virginia Reckless Driving By Vehicle Not Under Control Charges

Driving a vehicle not under your control refers generally to driving a vehicle with faulty brakes or losing control of your vehicle. If your brakes fail and cause an accident or if there’s something in the road that you swerved to avoid hitting and then that causes you to lose control of your vehicle, then you may be charged with this type of reckless driving. A Virginia reckless driving attorney can help you craft a tailored defense to combat these charges and minimize the negative implications that could potentially follow.

Evidence

To prove this particular type of reckless driving, a Virginia police officer has to present evidence that shows that the defendant lost control of his vehicle or that his brakes were not working properly and that in either situation, it was the defendant’s fault.

It’s pretty difficult to prove without the defendant admitting or providing some sort of evidence to the officer that demonstrates that it was his fault. A Virginia reckless driving lawyer can help to cross-examine the officer’s allegations by demonstrating either that the vehicle’s loss of control was not due to the driver’s fault, or that the brakes were working fine, or the driver had no warning that there was something faulty with the brakes.

Legal Defenses for Losing Control of Your Vehicle

There are a variety of ways that somebody could lose control of their vehicle and have it not be their fault. If there is an object in the road unexpectedly and the driver swerves to avoid hitting it, then this will be a legal excuse. If there was another driver doing something illegal, which caused the driver to react in a manner that resulted in the loss of control, then this could also be a legal excuse.

For faulty brakes, if the driver had no warning that there was anything wrong and therefore he wasn’t negligent, then this also would be a legal excuse.

Faulty Brakes

Faulty brakes in these cases means that your vehicle can pose a hazard to other drivers on the highway because of the unreliability of your brakes functioning properly when necessary. As long as you have properly maintained your vehicle and taken it in for routine maintenance with all of the required safety inspections, there’s really no reason not to know if there was something wrong with your brakes.

Mechanic’s Negligence

It’s possible that there could be a mechanic at fault for someone having a faulty vehicle and not knowing about it or if they weren’t told. However, it’s pretty unlikely that this would be the case because the whole point of mechanics is to fix your vehicle and get your money. It is rare to see a situation where a mechanic would really benefit unless they made a mistake and therefore were negligent.

Either way, this would have to be proven in court. If it were to be able to be proven in court then it’s very possible that this would provide a legal excuse for the defense.

Safety Inspections

It’s possible that a negligent safety inspection created the situation where your automobile had faulty brakes. Working brakes are a requirement in Virginia for vehicles to pass the requisite safety inspection. If someone were to fail the inspection because their brakes weren’t working adequately, and then they decided to ignore that and kept on driving with the failed inspection due to faulty brakes, then eventually at some point they could be charged with reckless driving in Virginia due to the negligence.

Steps An Attorney Can Take

For a reckless driving case with faulty brakes, it’s important to have all of the documents that will show that someone was routinely having their vehicle inspected, maintained, and that any repairs that were required were taken care of in a timely manner. An attorney can help you make sure that you have enough documented evidence to prove that you were not at fault in this situation.

An attorney can also explain to you what the officer is going to have to prove in court in order for a conviction to result. An attorney can present all of this evidence in an effective manner that will refute the officer’s allegations that the driver’s behavior amounted to the level of reckless driving.

Impact of These Charges on CDL Holders

For a person who holds a commercial driver’s license (CDL) all types of reckless driving are considered to be serious violations. Too many serious violations in a short period of time can result in disqualification of the commercial driver’s license. This means that if you’re disqualified, you’re not allowed to drive your commercial vehicle anymore. This is definitely important to consider for CDL drivers facing this charge because oftentimes they may think that it won’t have any effect on their commercial driver’s license because they weren’t  commercially driving at the time. So this is simply not true. Even if you were charged with reckless driving while driving your own personal vehicle, you can still have your CDL disqualified.