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City Hall175 East 200 NorthSt. George, UT 84770(435) 627-4000
| March 17, 2010 |
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Traffic Laws and Strict Liability Deputy Chief Russell Peck In any Criminal Offense, there are certain elements that constitute a crime. All elements must be met in order for a crime to occur. To commit a crime, the offense must be prohibited by law and the actor must act intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence as one of the elements. I'll use the example of someone taking someone else's coat. Let's say a coat was discovered missing. The man who took the coat was found and questioned by the police. One of the elements has been met -the man took a coat and deprived the owner of his property. But, it was found the man owned a coat exactly like the one that was taken and through the investigation, the officer found the man mistakenly took the wrong coat off the coat rack, thinking it was his. He did not have the culpable mental state of stealing the coat intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence. He simply made a mistake and took the coat thinking it was his. There has been no crime committed! The criminal law allows for mistakes such as this. In this scenario, one of the elements is missing. The actor did not mean to steal the coat. The coat is returned to the owner, no arrests are made and everybody's happy. Strict liability is another legal term which means no culpable mental state is required. Strict liability means if you commit the act regardless if it wasn't intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence - you are still guilty of the offense. Most traffic laws involve strict liability. Most people do not intend to speed, wreck into another car, or violate a myriad of other traffic offenses. It does not matter. The driver is under strict liability to operate their vehicle according to the law. Police Officer's hear a variety of reasons for being stopped for a traffic violation such as: "I didn't see the stop sign. I didn't know I was speeding. That person stopped right in front of me and I didn't mean to hit them." The bottom line is it doesn't matter. Most traffic laws involve strict liability as one of the elements of the offense. So remember as your moving that machine of burning churning power -you're responsible for it's actions! Drive safe, take control, and stay alert. It's a jungle out there. |
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