Walk It Through: The School Run
Two car seats, a bus with no lights on, a ticket with a letter on it, a plate bulb, and a bump in the lot.
Two kids in the back: a heavy three year old and a tall seven year old. The neighbor's kid is riding along.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
The penalty for a car seat violation and whether it is enforced as a primary or secondary offense, a bus stopped on private property or in a school zone and a citation from a bus camera, the full penalty ladder for speeding and the construction zone doubling, the side and rear tint figures, and the exact sentencing ranges after a crash are not reproduced here. Municipalities may have their own ordinances on several of these.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
10 words · tap one for its definition
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- DegreeThe classification every Ohio offense carries, from minor misdemeanor up to felony of the first degree. The degree sets the available range before anyone looks at the facts.
- Assured clear distance aheadThe rule in division (A) of the speed section: no greater speed than lets the vehicle be brought to a stop within the distance that is clear ahead of it.
- Minor misdemeanorThe bottom rung of the Ohio code. No jail term at all, a fine capped at one hundred and fifty dollars, and a section that says an officer shall issue a citation rather than arrest unless one of four exceptions applies.
- Predicate motor vehicle or traffic offenseA defined list of traffic sections in the definitions statute. One of them within a year turns a speeding violation from a minor misdemeanor into a fourth degree misdemeanor; two or more make it a third.
- Prima facieEstablished unless something is shown against it. Where a speed limit is prima facie, exceeding it makes out the violation and leaves room to show the speed was reasonable and proper for the conditions.
- Probable causeFacts that would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime has been committed and that this person committed it. It is the threshold for an arrest and for a search warrant.
- The equipment basisAn equipment provision used as the lawful basis for a stop. A plate light that does not render the plate legible from fifty feet, a missing headlight, glass below the transmittance the administrative rule sets.
- Liquidated damagesA figure fixed in advance by statute or contract rather than proved after the fact. On unpaid wages it is six percent of the amount unpaid or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater.
- Seizure of a personThe moment a person is no longer free to leave, by physical force or by a show of authority they submit to. Everything the Fourth Amendment requires starts counting from that moment.
- Occupant restraining deviceThe statute's name for a seat belt, as distinct from a child restraint system and a booster seat. A child at least eight and not older than fifteen may be secured in one rather than in a child restraint system.