Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 55 > Chapter 8 - Operation of Vehicles - Rules of the Road

• ADS: means technology installed on a motor vehicle that has the capability to drive the vehicle on which the technology is installed in high or full automation mode, without any supervision by a human operator, with specific driving mode performance by the automated driving system of all aspects of the dynamic driving task that can be managed by a human driver, including the ability to automatically bring the motor vehicle into a minimal risk condition in the event of a critical vehicle or system failure or other emergency event. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• ADS-operated vehicle: means a vehicle equipped with an automated driving system. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• All-terrain vehicle: means either:
  (A) A motorized nonhighway tire vehicle with no less than four (4) nonhighway tires, but no more than six (6) nonhighway tires, that is limited in total dry weight to less than two thousand five hundred pounds (2,500 lbs. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment: means the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment in effect at the time of the performance of any examination or test on the exposed person required under this part. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Asbestos: means chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, actinolite asbestos, asbestiform winchite, asbestiform richterite, asbestiform amphibole minerals, and any of these minerals that have been chemically treated or altered, including all minerals defined as asbestos in 29 CFR 1910 at the time the asbestos action is filed. See Tennessee Code 29-34-602
• Asbestosis: means bilateral diffuse interstitial fibrosis of the lungs caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Authorized emergency vehicle: means vehicles of the fire department, fire patrol, police vehicles or bicycles and emergency vehicles that are designated or authorized by the commissioner or the chief of police of an incorporated city, and vehicles operated by commissioned members of the Tennessee bureau of investigation when on official business. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Bicycle: means every device propelled by human power upon which any person may ride, having two (2) tandem wheels, either of which is more than twenty inches (20") in diameter. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Bus: means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten (10) passengers and used for the transportation of persons, and every motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Business district: means the territory contiguous to and including a highway when within any six hundred feet (600') along the highway there are buildings in use for business or industrial purposes, including, but not limited to, hotels, banks, or office buildings, railroad stations and public buildings that occupy at least three hundred feet (300') of frontage on one (1) side or three hundred feet (300') collectively on both sides of the highway. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Certified police cyclist: means any full time, sworn law enforcement officer who is certified by the International Police Mountain Bike Association or has otherwise been certified by the Tennessee peace officer standards and training commission as having received and successfully completed appropriate bicycle training in the performance of law enforcement functions. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Chauffeur: means every person who is employed by another for the principal purpose of driving a motor vehicle and every person who drives a school bus transporting school children or any motor vehicle when in use for the transportation of persons or property for compensation. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Chest x-ray: means chest films taken in accordance with all applicable state and federal regulatory standards and taken in the posterior-anterior view. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Class I off-highway vehicle: includes mini-trucks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Class II off-highway vehicle: means any off-highway vehicle that is designed to be primarily used for recreational purposes, that has a nonstraddle seating capable of holding at least two (2) but no more than four (4) passengers and a steering wheel, and that is commonly referred to as a sand buggy, dune buggy, rock crawler, or sand rail. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of safety. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controlled-access highway: means every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of access to or from the same, except at such points only and in such manner as may be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over the highway, street or roadway. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Credit Score: A number, roughly between 300 and 800, that measures an individual's credit worthiness. The most well-known type of credit score is the FICO score. This score represents the answer from a mathematical formula that assigns numerical values to various pieces of information in your credit report. ^{Source: OCC}
• Crosswalk: means :
  (A) That part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: means every person engaged in the business of buying, selling or exchanging vehicles of a type required to be registered and who has an established place of business for that purpose in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of safety. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• DLCO: means diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide, which is the measurement of carbon monoxide transfer from inspired gas to pulmonary capillary blood. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Driver: means :
  (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Dynamic driving task: means all of the real-time operational and tactical functions required to operate a vehicle in on-road traffic. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Established place of business: means the place actually occupied either continuously or at regular periods by a dealer or manufacturer where the books and records are kept and a large share of the business is transacted. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Exposed person: means a person whose exposure to asbestos or to asbestos-containing products is the basis for an asbestos action. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. ^{Source: OCC}
• FVC: means the maximal volume of air expired with maximum effort from a position of full inspiration. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Golf cart: means a motor vehicle that is designed and manufactured for operation on a golf course for sporting or recreational purposes and equipped with safety belts installed for use in the left front and right front seats and that is not capable of exceeding speeds of twenty miles per hour (20 mph). See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way when any part thereto is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Intersection: means :
  (A) The area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or, if none, then the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of two (2) highways that join one another at, or approximately at, right angles, or the areas within which vehicles traveling upon different highways joining at any other angle may come in conflict. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Laned roadway: means a roadway which is divided into two (2) or more clearly marked lanes for vehicular traffic. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local authorities: means every county, municipal and other local board or body having authority to enact ordinances or make regulations relating to traffic under the constitution and laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Low speed vehicle: means any four-wheeled electric vehicle, excluding golf carts, whose top speed is greater than twenty miles per hour (20 mph) but not greater than twenty-five miles per hour (25 mph), including neighborhood vehicles. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Manufacturer: means every person engaged in the business of constructing or assembling vehicles of a type required to be registered at an established place of business in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Medium speed vehicle: means any four-wheeled electric or gasoline-powered vehicle, excluding golf carts, whose top speed is greater than thirty miles per hour (30 mph), but whose maximum speed allowed is thirty-five miles per hour (35 mph) only on streets with a forty mile per hour (40 mph) or less posted speed limit pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Minimal risk condition: means a low-risk operating mode in which an ADS-operated vehicle when the ADS is engaged achieves a reasonably safe state upon experiencing a failure of the vehicle's ADS that renders the vehicle unable to perform the entire dynamic driving task. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Motor-driven cycle: means every motorcycle, including every motor scooter, with a motor that produces no more than five (5) brake horsepower, or with a motor with a cylinder capacity not exceeding one hundred twenty-five cubic centimeters (125cc). See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Motorized bicycle: means a vehicle with two (2) or three (3) wheels, an automatic transmission, and a motor with a cylinder capacity not exceeding fifty cubic centimeters (50cc) which produces no more than two (2) brake horsepower and is capable of propelling the vehicle at a maximum design speed of no more than thirty miles per hour (30 mph) on level ground. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• off-highway motor vehicle: means any vehicle designed primarily to be operated off public highways, including any Class I off-highway vehicle, Class II off-highway vehicle, all-terrain vehicle, any motorcycle commonly referred to as a dirt bike, or any snowmobile or other vehicle designed to travel exclusively over snow or ice. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Operator: means :
  (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person, other than a chauffeur, who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon a highway or who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Owner: means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle, or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof, with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter and chapter 10, parts 1-5 of this title. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Pedestrian: means any person afoot or using a motorized or non-motorized wheelchair. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Pedestrian area: includes a sidewalk, crosswalk, school crosswalk, school crossing zone, or safety zone. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Person: means a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, or an engaged ADS. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal delivery device: means a device that:
  (A) Is solely powered by an electric motor. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Platoon: means a group of individual motor vehicles that are traveling in a unified manner at electronically coordinated speeds. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Pole trailer: means every vehicle without motive power designed to be driven by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads, such as poles, pipes or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Police officer: means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Private road or driveway: means every way or place in private ownership and used for vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission from the owner, but not by other persons. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Qualified physician: means a board-certified internist, pathologist, pulmonary specialist, or specialist in occupational and environmental medicine, as may be appropriate to the actual diagnostic specialty in question, who:
  (A) Has conducted a physical examination of the exposed person and has taken or has directed to be taken under the physician's supervision, direction and control, a detailed occupational, exposure, medical, smoking, and social history from the exposed person, or the physician has reviewed the pathology material and has taken or has directed to be taken under the physician's supervision, direction and control, a detailed history from the person most knowledgeable about the information forming the basis of the asbestos action. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Railroad: means a carrier of persons or property upon cars, other than streetcars, operated upon stationary rails. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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 Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Railroad train: means a steam engine, electric or other motor, with or without cars coupled thereto, operated upon rails, except streetcars. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Recycling vehicle: means any vehicle that is designed and used exclusively for the collection or transportation of recovered materials or recyclable materials. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Residential district: means the territory contiguous to and including a highway not comprising a business district when the property on the highway for a distance of three hundred feet (300') or more is in the main improved with residences. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Right-of-way: means the privilege of the immediate use of the roadway. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Road tractor: means every motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon either independently or any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Roadway: means that portion of a highway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Safety zone: means the area or space officially set apart within a roadway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and that is protected or is so marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• School bus: means every motor vehicle owned by a public or governmental agency and operated for the transportation of children to or from school or privately owned and operated for compensation for the transportation of children to or from school. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Semitrailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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 use of pedestrians. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Solid tire: means every tire of rubber or other resilient material which does not depend upon compressed air for the support of the load. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Solid waste vehicle: means any vehicle engaged in the collecting and transporting of municipal solid waste as defined by §. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Special mobile equipment: means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including farm tractors, road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, well-boring apparatus and concrete mixers. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Specially constructed vehicle: means every vehicle of a type required to be registered not originally constructed under a distinctive name, make, model or type by a generally recognized manufacturer of vehicles and not materially altered from its original construction. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Spirometry: means a test of air capacity of the lung through a spirometer to measure the volume of air inspired and expired. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Stop line: means a white line placed generally in conformance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), as adopted by the department of transportation, denoting the point where an intersection begins. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Street: means the entire width between boundary lines of every way when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Streetcar: means a car other than a railroad train for transporting persons or property and operated upon rails principally within a municipality. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Through highway: means every highway or portion of the highway at the entrance to which vehicular traffic from intersecting highways is required by law to stop before entering or crossing the same and when stop signs are erected as provided in this chapter. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Total lung capacity: means the volume of gas contained in the lungs at the end of a maximal inspiration. See Tennessee Code 29-34-702
• Trackless trolley coach: means every motor vehicle that is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires but not operated upon rails. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Tractor: means any self-propelled vehicle designed or used as a traveling power plant or for drawing other vehicles, but having no provision for carrying loads independently. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Traffic: means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances either singly or together while using any highway for purposes of travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Traffic-control signal: means any device, whether manually, electrically or mechanically operated, by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and to proceed. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Trailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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 designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Truck tractor: means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Urban district: means the territory contiguous to and including any street that is built up with structures devoted to business, industry or dwelling houses situated at intervals of less than one hundred feet (100') for a distance of one-quarter (1/4) mile or more. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Vehicle: means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105