Originally Posted by
base2
My overall point was you can't charge a moving violation if such "violation" did not take place on a roadway.
On a related note: (and I don't mean to derail the thread this early on)
Here in Washington we had a case a few years back where a guy got a speeding ticket. Key to the case was the officer wrote in his statement that his patrol car was located in the median when he properly used used his properly calibrated radar gun to observe the infraction take place. The driver fought the ticket in court & won. The gist of the drivers defense was that to be issued a citation the officer must observe from the roadway. Under the law the median is defined as: "The area between roadways." Therefore the officer was not in a legally defined place for accurate observation..
The LEO needs to use the word
highway rather than
roadway as that is defined as everything between the ROW boundaries.
RCW
46.04.197Highway.
Highway means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.
Roadway.
"Roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the sidewalk or shoulder even though such sidewalk or shoulder is used by persons riding bicycles. In the event a highway includes two or more separated roadways, the term "roadway" shall refer to any such roadway separately but shall not refer to all such roadways collectively.