Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 4511 - Traffic Laws - Operation of Motor Vehicles

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agricultural tractor: means every self-propelling vehicle designed or used for drawing other vehicles or wheeled machinery but having no provision for carrying loads independently of such other vehicles, and used principally for agricultural purposes. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Alley: means a street or highway intended to provide access to the rear or side of lots or buildings in urban districts and not intended for the purpose of through vehicular traffic, and includes any street or highway that has been declared an "alley" by the legislative authority of the municipal corporation in which such street or highway is located. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Beacon: means a highway traffic signal with one or more signal sections that operate in a flashing mode. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Bicycle: means every device, other than a device that is designed solely for use as a play vehicle by a child, that is propelled solely by human power upon which a person may ride, and that has two or more wheels, any of which is more than fourteen inches in diameter. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Bus: means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than nine passengers and used for the transportation of persons other than in a ridesharing arrangement, and every motor vehicle, automobile for hire, or funeral car, other than a taxicab or motor vehicle used in a ridesharing arrangement, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Business district: means the territory fronting upon a street or highway, including the street or highway, between successive intersections within municipal corporations where fifty per cent or more of the frontage between such successive intersections is occupied by buildings in use for business, or within or outside municipal corporations where fifty per cent or more of the frontage for a distance of three hundred feet or more is occupied by buildings in use for business, and the character of such territory is indicated by official traffic control devices. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• cancellation: means the annulment or termination by the bureau of motor vehicles of a driver's license, commercial driver's license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privilege because it was obtained unlawfully, issued in error, altered, or willfully destroyed, or because the holder no longer is entitled to the license, permit, or privilege. See Ohio Code 4510.01
• Child: includes child by adoption. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Crosswalk: means :

  (1) That part of a roadway at intersections ordinarily included within the real or projected prolongation of property lines and curb lines or, in the absence of curbs, the edges of the traversable roadway;

  (2) Any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere, distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface;

  (3) Notwithstanding divisions (LL)(1) and (2) of this section, there shall not be a crosswalk where local authorities have placed signs indicating no crossing. See Ohio Code 4511.01

• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric bicycle: means a "class 1 electric bicycle" a "class 2 electric bicycle" or a "class 3 electric bicycle" as defined in this section. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Emergency vehicle: means emergency vehicles of municipal, township, or county departments or public utility corporations when identified as such as required by law, the director of public safety, or local authorities, and motor vehicles when commandeered by a police officer. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Explosives: means any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is intended for the purpose of producing an explosion that contains any oxidizing and combustible units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or packing that an ignition by fire, by friction, by concussion, by percussion, or by a detonator of any part of the compound or mixture may cause such a sudden generation of highly heated gases that the resultant gaseous pressures are capable of producing destructive effects on contiguous objects, or of destroying life or limb. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Expressway: means a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full or partial control of access with an excess of fifty per cent of all crossroads separated in grade. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Freeway: means a divided multi-lane highway for through traffic with all crossroads separated in grade and with full control of access. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Funeral escort vehicle: means any motor vehicle, including a funeral hearse, while used to facilitate the movement of a funeral procession. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way open to the use of the public as a thoroughfare for purposes of vehicular travel. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Highway maintenance vehicle: means a vehicle used in snow and ice removal or road surface maintenance, including a snow plow, traffic line striper, road sweeper, mowing machine, asphalt distributing vehicle, or other such vehicle designed for use in specific highway maintenance activities. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Highway traffic signal: means a power-operated traffic control device by which traffic is warned or directed to take some specific action. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Hybrid beacon: means a type of beacon that is intentionally placed in a dark mode between periods of operation where no indications are displayed and, when in operation, displays both steady and flashing traffic control signal indications. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Ignition interlock device: means a device approved by the director of public safety that connects a breath analyzer to a motor vehicle's ignition system, that is constantly available to monitor the concentration by weight of alcohol in the breath of any person attempting to start that motor vehicle by using its ignition system, and that deters starting the motor vehicle by use of its ignition system unless the person attempting to start the vehicle provides an appropriate breath sample for the device and the device determines that the concentration by weight of alcohol in the person's breath is below a preset level. See Ohio Code 4510.01
• imprisonment: means being imprisoned under a sentence imposed for an offense or serving a term of imprisonment, prison term, jail term, term of local incarceration, or other term under a sentence imposed for an offense in an institution under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction, a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, a minimum security jail, a community-based correctional facility, or another facility described or referred to in section 2929. See Ohio Code 1.05
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Intersection: means :

  (1) The area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or, if none, the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of two highways that join one another at, or approximately at, right angles, or the area within which vehicles traveling upon different highways that join at any other angle might come into conflict. See Ohio Code 4511.01

• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Local authorities: means every county, municipal, and other local board or body having authority to adopt police regulations under the constitution and laws of this state. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Low-speed micromobility device: means a device weighing less than one hundred pounds that has handlebars, is propelled by an electric motor or human power, and has an attainable speed on a paved level surface of not more than twenty miles per hour when propelled by the electric motor. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Median: means the area between two roadways of a divided highway, measured from edge of traveled way to edge of traveled way, but excluding turn lanes. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Motor vehicle: means every vehicle propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires, except motorized bicycles, electric bicycles, road rollers, traction engines, power shovels, power cranes, and other equipment used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway transportation, hole-digging machinery, well-drilling machinery, ditch-digging machinery, farm machinery, and trailers designed and used exclusively to transport a boat between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a marina, when drawn or towed on a street or highway for a distance of no more than ten miles and at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour or less. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Motorcycle: means every motor vehicle, other than a tractor, having a seat or saddle for the use of the operator and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, including, but not limited to, motor vehicles known as "motor-driven cycle" "motor scooter" "autocycle" "cab-enclosed motorcycle" or "motorcycle" without regard to weight or brake horsepower. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Motorized wheelchair: means any self-propelled vehicle designed for, and used by, a person with a disability and that is incapable of a speed in excess of eight miles per hour. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Moving violation: means any violation of any statute or ordinance that regulates the operation of vehicles, streetcars, or trackless trolleys on the highways or streets. See Ohio Code 4510.01
• Operate: means to cause or have caused movement of a vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Pedestrian: includes a personal delivery device as defined in section 4511. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Person: means every natural person, firm, co-partnership, association, or corporation. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Police officer: means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic, or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Predicate motor vehicle or traffic offense: means any of the following:

  (1) A violation of section 4511. See Ohio Code 4511.01

• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Private road open to public travel: includes a gated toll road but does not include a road within a private gated property where access is restricted at all times, a parking area, a driving aisle within a parking area, or a private grade crossing. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Private road or driveway: means every way or place in private ownership used for vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission from the owner but not by other persons. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Public safety vehicle: means any of the following:

  (1) Ambulances, including private ambulance companies under contract to a municipal corporation, township, or county, and private ambulances and nontransport vehicles bearing license plates issued under section 4503. See Ohio Code 4511.01

• Railroad: means a carrier of persons or property operating upon rails placed principally on a private right-of-way. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Railroad sign or signal: means any sign, signal, or device erected by authority of a public body or official or by a railroad and intended to give notice of the presence of railroad tracks or the approach of a railroad train. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Railroad train: means a steam engine or an electric or other motor, with or without cars coupled thereto, operated by a railroad. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Registered mail: includes certified mail and "certified mail" includes registered mail. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Residence district: means the territory, not comprising a business district, fronting on a street or highway, including the street or highway, where, for a distance of three hundred feet or more, the frontage is improved with residences or residences and buildings in use for business. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Ridesharing arrangement: means the transportation of persons in a motor vehicle where such transportation is incidental to another purpose of a volunteer driver and includes ridesharing arrangements known as carpools, vanpools, and buspools. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Right-of-way: means either of the following, as the context requires:

  (1) The right of a vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or pedestrian to proceed uninterruptedly in a lawful manner in the direction in which it or the individual is moving in preference to another vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or pedestrian approaching from a different direction into its or the individual's path;

  (2) A general term denoting land, property, or the interest therein, usually in the configuration of a strip, acquired for or devoted to transportation purposes. See Ohio Code 4511.01

• Road service vehicle: means wreckers, utility repair vehicles, and state, county, and municipal service vehicles equipped with visual signals by means of flashing, rotating, or oscillating lights. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Roadway: means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, except the berm or shoulder. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Safety zone: means the area or space officially set apart within a roadway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and protected or marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• School bus: means every bus designed for carrying more than nine passengers that is owned by a public, private, or governmental agency or institution of learning and operated for the transportation of children to or from a school session or a school function, or owned by a private person and operated for compensation for the transportation of children to or from a school session or a school function, provided "school bus" does not include a bus operated by a municipally owned transportation system, a mass transit company operating exclusively within the territorial limits of a municipal corporation, or within such limits and the territorial limits of municipal corporations immediately contiguous to such municipal corporation, nor a common passenger carrier certified by the public utilities commission unless such bus is devoted exclusively to the transportation of children to and from a school session or a school function, and "school bus" does not include a van or bus used by a licensed child care center or type A family child care home to transport children from the child care center or type A family child care home to a school if the van or bus does not have more than fifteen children in the van or bus at any time. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Semitrailer: means every vehicle designed or used for carrying persons or property with another and separate motor vehicle so that in operation a part of its own weight or that of its load, or both, rests upon and is carried by another vehicle. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Shared-use path: means a bikeway outside the traveled way and physically separated from motorized vehicular traffic by an open space or barrier and either within the highway right-of-way or within an independent alignment. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Sidewalk: means that portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, intended for the use of pedestrians. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• State highway: means a highway under the jurisdiction of the department of transportation, outside the limits of municipal corporations, provided that the authority conferred upon the director of transportation in section 5511. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• State route: means every highway that is designated with an official state route number and so marked. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stop intersection: means any intersection at one or more entrances of which stop signs are erected. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Streetcar: means a car, other than a railroad train, for transporting persons or property, operated upon rails principally within a street or highway. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• suspension: means the permanent or temporary withdrawal, by action of a court or the bureau of motor vehicles, of a driver's license, commercial driver's license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privilege for the period of the suspension or the permanent or temporary withdrawal of the privilege to obtain a license, permit, or privilege of that type for the period of the suspension. See Ohio Code 4510.01
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Through highway: means every street or highway as provided in section 4511. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Thruway: means a through highway whose entire roadway is reserved for through traffic and on which roadway parking is prohibited. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Trackless trolley: means every car that collects its power from overhead electric trolley wires and that is not operated upon rails or tracks. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Traffic: means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars, trackless trolleys, and other devices, either singly or together, while using for purposes of travel any highway or private road open to public travel. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Traffic control device: means a flagger, sign, signal, marking, or other device used to regulate, warn, or guide traffic, placed on, over, or adjacent to a street, highway, private road open to public travel, pedestrian facility, or shared-use path by authority of a public agency or official having jurisdiction, or, in the case of a private road open to public travel, by authority of the private owner or private official having jurisdiction. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Traffic control signal: means any highway traffic signal by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and permitted to proceed. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Trailer: means every vehicle designed or used for carrying persons or property wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, including any such vehicle when formed by or operated as a combination of a "semitrailer" and a vehicle of the dolly type, such as that commonly known as a "trailer dolly" a vehicle used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm when drawn or towed on a street or highway at a speed greater than twenty-five miles per hour, and a vehicle designed and used exclusively to transport a boat between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a marina, when drawn or towed on a street or highway for a distance of more than ten miles or at a speed of more than twenty-five miles per hour. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Truck: means every motor vehicle, except trailers and semitrailers, designed and used to carry property. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Urban district: means the territory contiguous to and including any street or highway which is built up with structures devoted to business, industry, or dwelling houses situated at intervals of less than one hundred feet for a distance of a quarter of a mile or more, and the character of such territory is indicated by official traffic control devices. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Vehicle: means every device, including a motorized bicycle and an electric bicycle, in, upon, or by which any person or property may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except that "vehicle" does not include any motorized wheelchair, any electric personal assistive mobility device, any low-speed micromobility device, any personal delivery device as defined in section 4511. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Waste collection vehicle: means a vehicle used in the collection of garbage, refuse, trash, or recyclable materials. See Ohio Code 4511.01
• Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02