Traffic Code and Crash Investigations Flashcards
Define Bicycle
A device that a person may ride and that:
-is capable of being ridden soley using human power
AND
-has tandem wheels at least one of which is more than 14 inches in diameter
Define Bus
A motor vehicle designed to accommodate more than 10 passengers including the operator OR a motor vehicle other than a taxicab designed and used to transport persons for compensation.
Farm Tractor
A motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement to draw an implement of husbandry, including a plow or a mowing machine.
House Trailer
A trailer or semitrailer, other than a towable recreational vehicle that:
- Less than 45ft in length
- Transportable on the highway
- Built on permanent chassis
- Used as a dwelling or for commercial purposes if connected to required utilities and includes plumbing, heating, air-conditioning and electrical system.
Implement of Husbandry
- Vehicle designed and adapted for use as a farm implement, machinery or tool for tilling the soil.
- Transports to the field and spreads fertilizer or agriculture chemicals; or
- A motor vehicle designed and adapted to deliver food to livestock.
Light Truck
A pick-up truck, panel delivery truck, or carryall truck that has a manufactures rated carrying capacity of 2,000 pounds or less.
Moped
a motor vehicle that is equipped with a rider’s saddle and designed to have when propelled not more than three wheels on the ground, that cannot attain a speed in one mile of more than 30 miles per hour, and the engine of which:
(A) cannot produce more than five-brake horsepower; and
(B) if an internal combustion engine, has a piston displacement of 50 cubic centimeters or less and connects to a power drive system that does not require the operator to shift gears.
Motorcycle
motor vehicle, other than a tractor or moped, that is equipped with a rider’s saddle and designed to have when propelled not more than three wheels on the ground.
Motor vehicle
means a self-propelled vehicle or a vehicle that is propelled by electric power from overhead trolley wires. The term does not include an electric bicycle or an electric personal assistive mobility device
Multifunction school activity bus
means a motor vehicle that was manufactured in compliance with the federal motor vehicle safety standards for school buses in effect on the date of manufacture other than the standards requiring the bus to display alternately flashing red lights and to be equipped with movable stop arms, and that is used to transport preprimary, primary, or secondary students on a school-related activity trip other than on routes to and from school. The term does not include a school bus, a school activity bus, a school-chartered bus, or a bus operated by a mass transit authority.
Passenger car
motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle, used to transport persons and designed to accommodate 10 or fewer passengers, including the operator.
Pole Trailer
Vehicle without motive power
Police Vehicle
means a vehicle used by a peace officer, as defined by Article 2.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, for law enforcement purposes that:
(A) is owned or leased by a governmental entity;
(B) is owned or leased by the police department of a private institution of higher education that commissions peace officers under Section 51.212, Education Code; or
(C) is:
(i) a private vehicle owned or leased by the peace officer; and
(ii) approved for use for law enforcement purposes by the head of the law enforcement agency that employs the peace officer, or by that person’s designee
Road Tractor
means a motor vehicle designed and used to draw another vehicle but not constructed to carry a load independently or a part of the weight of the other vehicle or its load.
School Activity Bus
means a bus designed to accommodate more than 15 passengers, including the operator, that is owned, operated, rented, or leased by a school district, county school, open-enrollment charter school, regional education service center, or shared services arrangement and that is used to transport public school students on a school-related activity trip, other than on routes to and from school. The term does not include a chartered bus, a bus operated by a mass transit authority, a school bus, or a multifunction school activity bus.
School Bus
means a motor vehicle that was manufactured in compliance with the federal motor vehicle safety standards for school buses in effect on the date of manufacture and that is used to transport pre-primary, primary, or secondary students on a route to or from school or on a school-related activity trip other than on routes to and from school. The term does not include a school-chartered bus or a bus operated by a mass transit authority.
Semi- Trailer
means a vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer:
(A) designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle and to transport persons or property; and
(B) constructed so that part of the vehicle’s weight and load rests on or is carried by another vehicle.
Special Mobile Equipment
means a vehicle that is not designed or used primarily to transport persons or property and that is only incidentally operated on a highway. The term:
(A) includes ditchdigging apparatus, well boring apparatus, and road construction and maintenance machinery, including an asphalt spreader, bituminous mixer, bucket loader, tractor other than a truck tractor, ditcher, levelling grader, finishing machine, motor grader, road roller, scarifier, earth-moving carryall and scraper, power shovel or dragline, or self-propelled crane and earth-moving equipment; and
(B) excludes a vehicle that is designed to transport persons or property and that has machinery attached, including a house trailer, dump truck, truck-mounted transit mixer, crane, and shovel.
Towable recreational vehicle
means a non-motorized vehicle that:
(A) is designed:
(i) to be towable by a motor vehicle; and
(ii) for temporary human habitation for uses including recreational camping or seasonal use;
(B) is permanently built on a single chassis;
(C) may contain one or more life-support systems; and
(D) may be used permanently or temporarily for advertising, selling, displaying, or promoting merchandise or services, but is not used for transporting property for hire or for distribution by a private carrier.
Trailer
means a vehicle, other than a pole trailer, with or without motive power:
(A) designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle and to transport persons or property; and
(B) constructed so that no part of the vehicle’s weight and load rests on the motor vehicle.
Truck
means a motor vehicle designed, used, or maintained primarily to transport property.
Truck Tractor
means a motor vehicle designed and used primarily to draw another vehicle but not constructed to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the other vehicle and its load.
Vehicle
means a device that can be used to transport or draw persons or property on a highway. The term does not include:
(A) a device exclusively used on stationary rails or tracks; or
(B) manufactured housing as that term is defined by Chapter 1201, Occupations Code.
Electric Bicycle
means a bicycle:
equipped with:
(i) fully operable pedals; and
(ii) an electric motor of fewer than 750 watts; and
(B) with a top assisted speed of 28 miles per hour or less.
Railroad
means a carrier that operates cars, other than streetcars, on stationary rails to transport persons or property.
Railroad Train
means a steam engine or electric or other motor with or without an attached car operated on rails, other than a streetcar.
Streetcar
means a car, other than a railroad train, used to transport persons or property and operated on rails located primarily within a municipality.
Exhaust emission system
means a motor vehicle engine modification designed to control or reduce the emission of substances from a motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine, of a model year of 1968 or later, and installed on or incorporated in a motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine in compliance with requirements imposed by the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act (42 U.S.C. Section 1857 et seq.) or other applicable law.
Metal Tire
includes a tire the surface of which in contact with the highway is wholly or partly made of metal or other hard, nonresilient material.
Muffler
means a device that reduces noise using:
(A) a mechanical design, including a series of chambers or baffle plates, to receive exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine; or
(B) turbine wheels to receive exhaust gas from a diesel engine.
Solid tire
includes only a tire that:
(A) is made of rubber or another resilient material; and
(B) does not use compressed air to support its load.
Operator
means, as used in reference to a vehicle, a person who drives or has physical control of a vehicle.
Owner
means, as used in reference to a vehicle, a person who has a property interest in or title to a vehicle. The term:
(A) includes a person entitled to use and possess a vehicle subject to a security interest; and
(B) excludes a lienholder and a lessee whose lease is not intended as security.
Pedestrian
means a person on foot.
Person
means an individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
School Crossing Guard
means a responsible person who is at least 18 years of age and is designated by a local authority to direct traffic in a school crossing zone for the protection of children going to or leaving a school.
Department
means the Department of Public Safety acting directly or through its authorized officers and agents.
Director
means the public safety director
Local Authority
means:
(A) a county, municipality, or other local entity authorized to enact traffic laws under the laws of this state; or
(B) a school district created under the laws of this state only when it is designating school crossing guards for schools operated by the district.
Police Officer
means an officer authorized to direct traffic or arrest persons who violate traffic regulations.
State
when referring to a part of the United States, includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, and insular possession of the United States and any area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America.
Metropolitan Areas
means an area that:
(1) contains at least one municipality with a population of at least 100,000; and
(2) includes the adjacent municipalities and unincorporated urban districts.
Restricted Districts:
Business District
means the territory adjacent to and including a highway if buildings used for business or industrial purposes, including a building used as a hotel, bank, office building, public building, or railroad station:
(A) are located within a 600-foot segment along the highway; and
(B) within that segment the buildings occupy at least 300 feet of frontage:
(i) on one side of the highway; or
(ii) collectively on both sides of the highway.
Restricted Business
Urban District
means the territory adjacent to and including a highway, if the territory:
(A) is not in a municipality; and
(B) is improved with structures that are used for business, industry, or dwelling houses and located at intervals of less than 100 feet for a distance of at least one-quarter mile on either side of the highway.
Restricted Business
Residence District
means the territory, other than a business district, adjacent to and including a highway, if at least 300 feet of the highway frontage is primarily improved with:
(A) residences; or
(B) buildings used for business purposes and residences.
Bodily Injury
means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition.
Individual
means a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.
Serious Bodily Injury
means bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
Public Place
means any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops.
Death
includes, for an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive.
Traffic
means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.
Alley
means a street that:
(A) is not used primarily for through traffic; and
(B) provides access to rear entrances of buildings or lots along a street.
Crosswalk
means:
(A) the portion of a roadway, including an intersection, designated as a pedestrian crossing by surface markings, including lines; or
(B) the portion of a roadway at an intersection that is within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite
Freeway
means a divided, controlled-access highway for through traffic.
Freeway Main Lane
means a freeway lane having an uninterrupted flow of through traffic.`
Highway or Street
means the width between the boundary lines of a publicly maintained way any part of which is open to the public for vehicular travel.
Improved Shoulder
means a paved shoulder
laned roadway
means a roadway that is divided into at least two clearly marked lanes for vehicular travel.
Limited- Access or Controlled- Access highway
means a highway or roadway to which:
(A) persons, including owners or occupants of abutting real property, have no right of access; and
(B) access by persons to enter or exit the highway or roadway is restricted under law except at a place and in the manner determined by the authority that has jurisdiction over the highway or roadway.
Private road or driveway
means a privately owned way or place used for vehicular travel and used only by the owner and persons who have the owner’s express or implied permission.
Ramp
means an interconnecting roadway of a traffic interchange, or a connecting roadway between highways at different levels or between parallel highways, that allows a vehicle to enter or exit a roadway.
Roadway
means the portion of a highway, other than the berm or shoulder, that is improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. If a highway includes at least two separate roadways, the term applies to each roadway separately.
Safety Zone
means the area in a roadway officially designated for exclusive pedestrian use and that is protected or so marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times while so designated.
School Crossing Zone
means a reduced-speed zone designated on a street by a local authority to facilitate safe crossing of the street by children going to or leaving a public or private elementary or secondary school during the time the reduced speed limit applies.
School Crosswalk
means a crosswalk designated on a street by a local authority to facilitate safe crossing of the street by children going to or leaving a public or private elementary or secondary school.
Shoulder
means the portion of a highway that is:
(A) adjacent to the roadway;
(B) designed or ordinarily used for parking;
(C) distinguished from the roadway by different design, construction, or marking; and
(D) not intended for normal vehicular travel.