On ESPN.com today, I came across an article about NBA player Andray Blatche (Washington Wizards) being charged with reckless driving. Assuming that this would be the typical "driving a Lamborghini down the highway at 140mph" that is so popular among athletes, I was a bit surprised that he was actually "only" doing 86 in a 70.

Having grown up in California, where the reckless driving charge on highways becomes a possibility only after exceeding 100mph, and currently living in the wonderfully high-speed state of Nevada, where I've certainly taken drives on the highway during which I did not encounter a single vehicle going under 86mph, I was a bit surprised at the severity of charging for reckless driving at just 16 mph over the posted limit. So I decided to do some research on the reckless driving limit for states around the country, and found this summary site:

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/laws.html

Interestingly, the following states have very strict reckless driving limits:
80: Hawaii (required jail time or community service), North Carolina (mandatory 30-day suspension)
85: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Oregon, Virginia

Arkansas and North Carolina also have reckless driving for 15mph over (NC also does mandatory 30-day suspension for 15 over). Missouri also has reckless driving for 20mph over. Most other states are at least 25mph over.

Note that many states (all the ones with a green box in the "reckless" column on that site) do not have an explicit reckless driving limit, although the site does note that many states likely enforce a set limit even if it is not legislated (e.g., it reports that Indiana will usually charge reckless driving for 25 over). The lack of legislation in some states means that, in those states, could be charged with reckless driving at any speed over the limit (seems dangerous).

I suppose this site is also useful for those who are planning to make long trips crossing several state lines.

 

GA its over 100mph and I believe 35mph over the limit.

 

In Hawaii, due to all the street racing and/or high speed accidents and deaths, felony reckless driving is 30 MPH over any posted speed limit, or anything over 80 MPH. They passed this law about 2 years ago.

 

I'm pretty sure that site is wrong on Illinois. Speeding Tickets only have checkboxes for 1-20mph over, 21-30mph over, and reckless driving, so I'm pretty sure +31 is the starting point.

 

Actually our lovely state is anything more than 14 over for reckless driving. Trust me. 87 in a 45 and 56 in a 35 been there done that.

 

Not only that, but, in VA, DC, (and CT, I believe), radar-detector use is illegal. Get caught using one (the State Police have detector-detectors and court-approved authority to search your car) and the detector can be impounded (the law for only having an unused one in the car is less clear).

VA, particularly the DC suburbs, is now one of the toughest states in the country. It means buisness.


The best and most sensible thing to do, no matter where you drive, is to stay at or near the limit. Most cops don't bother you if you're 10 MPH over or less. Also take into account that if you have oversize, non-stock, wheels/tires, your speedometer could read high and make you think you are going slower than you really are....I've posted on this topic many times.

 

Not speaking from experience though, right?

 

if it was 80 in cali... 1/2 the population would probably have reckless driving on their record...

 

Is that like a Trace Buster Buster Buster BUSTER?

But yeah, the safest of course is to drive at the speed limit or not much higher... then no problems. But on those long road trips, adding 20mph or even 10mph to the average speed starts making a big difference... too tempting.


Yeah, that's why it surprised me... the same thing could be said about Nevada. Heck, it'd probably be more than half.

 

I read that stock odometers almost always overstate your speed by a few mph. For example, if the odometer says 64 mph, you're actually going 60 mph.

In any case, I always cruise at 14 mph over the speed limit (69 mph on a 55 limit, 79 mph on a 65 limit.) Never been pulled over a single time in my 15 years of driving.

 

Sorry, that's on a cheap car. On MY lexus, the stock speedometer is within 2mph of the true speed even as high as 90mph, and around 60mph is around 1mph off. I know this because I have a GPS and the speed matches. So you are really doing a 67mph at 55mph if you got an LS, and I got a 91 LS400, you are just playing with your luck, sooner or later, you will run out. Anywayz, back when I was young, like last year, I did 140-150 a couple of times in my bmw 7 series. But now, I go the absolute speed limit, I am more concerned about staying near 2k RPM to get the best gas mileage.

 

I know that reckless driving in VA is 15 MPH over the limit....trust me, I know this one!

In the City of Falls Church, the speed limit is 25 MPH...it's not 30 MPH, it's not even 26 MPH...it's 25 MPH...and they're hardcore about enforcing it. Notice the sign below the speed-limit sign.