Virginia Beach Reckless Driving Attorney: § 46.2-862. Exceeding speed limit.

A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who drives a motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth (i) at a speed of twenty miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit or (ii) in excess of eighty miles per hour regardless of the applicable maximum speed limit.

SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE. –Defendant was properly convicted of reckless driving where evidence of defendant’s excessive speed was established by a calibration certificate admitted pursuant to § 46.2-942 and the arresting agent’s testimony that defendant had been paced for one mile at a speed of 105 mile-per-hour in a 65 miles per hour zone. Taylor v. Commonwealth, No. 1511-02-2, 2003 Va. App. LEXIS 159 (Ct. of Appeals Mar. 25, 2003).   Evidence was sufficient to support defendant’s conviction of reckless driving by speeding 70 miles per hour in 45 miles-per-hour zone under § 46.2-862 as: (1) defendant failed to object to the evidence of defendant’s speed obtained by pacing; (2) § 46.2-942 clearly contemplated the use of pacing as a method of determining a vehicle’s speed by authorizing the admission of calibration tests to prove the accuracy of an arresting officer’s speedometer; and (3) the omission of pacing from the methods for determining speed enumerated in § 46.2-882 did not invalidate it as an appropriate means of proving the speed of the vehicle. Savage v. Commonwealth, 2009 Va. App. LEXIS 327 (July 21, 2009).