Vehicle Code and Traffic Enforcement
What this domain tests
Title 75 enforcement: lawful stops, DUI tiers, implied consent, and the violations that generate most citizen complaints and most courtroom challenges.
Core rules
- A traffic stop is a seizure requiring reasonable suspicion of a violation; an arrest requires probable cause.
- Most summary traffic offenses proceed by citation. DUI (§3802) and fleeing/eluding (§3733) are criminal and usually custodial.
- DUI tiers: general impairment (incapable of safe driving, plus a per se tier at .08), high rate .10 to .159, highest rate .16 and above. Priors, refusal, and a minor passenger change grading and penalties.
- §1547 implied consent: refusing a chemical test triggers suspension even without a conviction, and the DL-26 warnings must be given.
- §3105(f) privileges for emergency vehicles do not authorize reckless disregard for safety.
Worked example
An officer sees a pickup cross the fog line twice and drift onto the shoulder. The stop is valid on reasonable suspicion of failing to drive on the right. Odor of alcohol, glassy eyes, slurred speech, and failed walk-and-turn give probable cause. A breath test returns .12, the high-rate tier. The officer arrests, reads the DL-26 warnings, and documents the SFST clues individually rather than just the conclusion.
Traps
- Confusing reasonable suspicion for the stop with probable cause for arrest.
- Writing that the driver was drunk without the observations that prove it.
- Forgetting the refusal suspension and the DL-26 advisement.
- Using a pretextual stop for drugs and calling it a traffic stop.
- Missing school bus (red lights, stop at least 10 feet away) and move-over violations near emergency scenes.