Click here to fight your Pennsylvania traffic ticket
Getting a reckless driving ticket in Pennsylvania is stressful, time-consuming, and expensive, especially if you don’t understand how the state’s laws define and punish this offense.
Learning about Pennsylvania’s reckless driving rules is your first step in fighting (or even avoiding) a ticket. The second step may entail hiring an experienced attorney who can successfully defend you in court.
This article will help you fulfill both of these steps. That is to say, not only are you going to be equipped with knowledge about Pennsylvania’s reckless driving laws, but you will also know how you can hire a qualified traffic attorney at a very low cost after you read this article.
What is reckless driving in Pennsylvania?
Section 3736 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code defines reckless driving as: “Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property”.
To put it another way, you would have to drive in a manner that intentionally ignores traffic and general road safety rules to be guilty of reckless driving in Pennsylvania.
Here are some violations that constitute reckless driving:
- Excessively speeding
- Driving without a valid license
- Driving while impaired or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs
- Performing an illegal maneuver
Keep in mind that these are just a few examples. There are many other violations that Pennsylvania’s law considers to be reckless driving.
What is the difference between careless and reckless driving?
The main distinction between reckless and careless driving is that the latter is defined by Section 3714 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code as driving with “careless disregard for the safety of persons or property”.
On the flip side, reckless driving entails driving “in willful or wanton disregard” for others’ safety. In short, this has to be done intentionally.
For instance, if someone accidentally falls asleep while they’re behind the wheel, Pennsylvania’s laws would treat them as a careless driver. Meanwhile, a driver who purposely and knowingly excessively speeds and goes well-above the limit would be charged with reckless driving.
Just as important is that the punishments for reckless driving are far more severe than the ones associated with careless driving.
Penalties for Reckless Driving
If you are charged with reckless driving, you will be punished with a $200 fine. You may also get your license suspended for up to 6 months. Additionally, the penalties for reckless driving are more severe in the following cases:
- A Property or Person is Harmed: A $1,000 fine and a 90-day jail sentence.
- A Person is Killed: $25,000 fine and a 12-months jail sentence.
- Reckless Driving in a Working or Emergency Zone: The above fine would double and become $400.
You should keep in mind that there are special work zone safety rules that apply to areas of the road that are undergoing construction and/or renovations. When you violate them, you could receive additional citations and fines on top of your reckless driving ticket.
For instance, some work zones have speed-monitoring devices. Going above the limit may lead you to get both speeding and reckless driving tickets.
In fact, if you exceed the speed limit in these zones by 11 miles per hour (mph) or more, the courts may suspend your license for 15 days, alongside doubling your $200 reckless driving fine to $400.
Therefore, you should be extra careful while you drive through a work zone in order to avoid heftier fines and penalties. After all, a reckless driving charge, in of itself, is very expensive and time-consuming.
What should I do if I’m charged with reckless driving?
Upon receiving a reckless driving ticket, the first thing that you need to do is to seek legal help. Although a lawyer will cost you money, pleading guilty or ignoring your reckless driving is priceless.
For that matter, you can find an affordable and highly-qualified attorney through the WinIt app. To look for lawyers in your area and compare their rates, go to the app’s website: https://www.appwinit.com/.
Above all, when you use WinIt, you don’t have to pay anything until your attorney successfully fights your ticket in court. Even then, your bill will only be 50% the original ticket or fine amount.
Simply put, you almost always save time and money when you hire a lawyer through WinIt, especially in comparison to what you would pay in ticket fines.
Working with an attorney is even more important since many people who don’t understand Pennsylvania’s reckless driving laws may unintentionally violate them.
What speed is considered reckless driving in Pennsylvania?
Going over the speed limit by 30 mph is automatically considered a reckless driving violation. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the speeding rules are stricter in work and emergency zones.
A police officer might also charge you with reckless driving if you violate other related laws (such as getting behind the wheel without a license or while impaired), and not just for speeding.
Successfully fighting these charges in court will require you to hire a reliable attorney who thoroughly understands Pennsylvania’s traffic laws and reckless driving rules.
Save time and money by hiring an attorney
Already, WinIt helped users save more than $50 million on driving tickets and citations. If you are facing a reckless driving charge in Pennsylvania, we can certainly help you, too!
Here is how the process works:
- Submit: Firstly, take a picture of your ticket. Don’t have one? No problem. Just use your license plate number and our app will locate the ticket for you!
- Review: Next, upload your evidence and supporting documents on the app, and our experts will review your case.
- Dispute: At this point, you can sit back and relax. WinIt partners with world-class traffic attorneys who will start fighting the reckless driving ticket for you while giving you updates through every step of the way.
- Save: Not only do you enjoy top-level legal services at a particularly low rate, but we don’t even charge you, to begin with, unless your ticket is successfully fought off. Even then, our rate is just 50% of the fine amount.
With an app like WinIt, fighting a reckless driving charge in Pennsylvania becomes a seamless and straightforward process.
Instead of stressing out about going to court and paying fines, you can sit back and focus on what’s important in your life while a world-class attorney handles your case and fights your ticket in court.
All you need to do is create a WinIt account and upload your ticket. We will handle the rest for you.
