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Justia> Law> South Dakota Law> South Dakota Code> Title 32 — MOTOR VEHICLES> 14 — Traffic Regulation Generally> 32-14-1 — Definitions.

32-14-1 — Definitions.

             (1)      "Alcoholic beverage," as that term is defined by subdivision 35-1-1(1);

             (2)      "Authorized emergency vehicle," a vehicle of a fire department, a police vehicle, and an ambulance and emergency vehicle of a municipal department or public service corporation that is designated or authorized by the department;

             (3)      "Automobile transporter," a vehicle combination designed or modified to be used specifically for the transport of assembled highway vehicles;

             (4)      "Boat transporter," a vehicle combination designed or modified to be used specifically for the transport of assembled or partially disassembled boats and boat hulls;

             (5)      "Business district," the territory contiguous to a highway when fifty percent or more of the frontage thereon for a distance of three hundred feet or more is occupied by buildings in use for business;

             (6)      "Commission," the Public Utilities Commission;

             (7)      "Controlled drug or substance," as that term is defined in § 34-20B-3;

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

             (9)      "Department," the Department of Public Safety of this state acting directly or through its duly authorized officers and agents;

             (10)      "Farm tractor," a motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines, and other implements of husbandry;

             (11)      "Highway," the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular travel;

             (12)      "Intersection," the area embraced within the prolongation of the lateral curb lines or, if none, then of the lateral boundary lines of two or more highways which join one another at an angle, whether or not one such highway crosses the other. However, such area, in the case of the point where an alley and a street meet within a municipality, is not an intersection;

             (13)      "Law enforcement officer," as that term is defined in § 23-3-27;

             (14)      "Local authorities," a county, municipal, township, road district, and other local board or body having authority to adopt local police regulations under the Constitution and laws of this state;

             (15)      "Metal tires," a tire the surface of which in contact with the highway is wholly or partly of metal or other hard, nonresilient material;

             (16)      "Motorcycle," a motor vehicle designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, except any vehicle as may be included within the term, tractor, as herein defined;

             (17)      "Motor vehicle," a vehicle, as herein defined, which is self-propelled;

             (18)      "Official traffic control device," a sign, signal, marking, and device not inconsistent with the law placed or erected by authority of a public body or official having jurisdiction, for the purpose of regulating, warning, or guiding traffic. The term also includes a flagman or a sign, signal, marking, or other device temporarily placed or erected by a person working upon, along, above, or under a highway installing or maintaining a public service facility and which is necessary or required to warn, direct, or otherwise control traffic during the time of work or when a hazard exists;

             (19)      "Owner," 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 is the owner for the purpose of said chapters;

             (20)      "Park or parking," the standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, otherwise than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in loading or unloading merchandise or passengers;

             (21)      "Pneumatic tire," a tire inflated with compressed air;

             (22)      "Private road or driveway," a road or driveway not open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel;

             (23)      "Recreation vehicle," a self-propelled or towed vehicle equipped to serve as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, or travel purposes and used solely as a family or personal conveyance and in no way used for a commercial purpose;

             (24)      "Residence district," the territory contiguous to a highway not comprising a business district when the frontage on the highway for a distance of three hundred feet or more is mainly occupied by dwellings or by dwellings and buildings in use for business;

             (25)      "Right-of-way," the right of one vehicle or pedestrian to proceed in a lawful manner in preference to another vehicle or pedestrian approaching under such circumstances of direction, speed, and proximity as to give rise to danger of collision unless one grants precedence to the other;

             (26)      "Road tractor," a 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;

             (27)      "Roadway," that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. If a highway includes two or more separate roadways, the term, roadway, refers to any such roadway separately but not to all such roadways collectively;

             (28)      "Safety zone," the area or space officially set aside within a highway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is so plainly marked or indicated by proper signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone;

             (29)      "Semitrailer," any vehicle of the trailer type equipped with a kingpin assembly, designed and used in conjunction with a fifth wheel connecting device on a motor vehicle and constructed so that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle;

             (30)      "Sidewalk," 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;

             (31)      "Single axle" or "one axle," one or more consecutive axles whose centers may be included between two transverse vertical planes spaced forty inches or less apart, extending across the full width of the vehicle;

             (32)      "Solid rubber tire," a tire made of rubber other than a pneumatic tire;

             (33)      "Steering axle," any axle on the front of a motor vehicle that is activated by the operator to directly accomplish guidance or steerage of the motor vehicle or combination of vehicles;

             (34)      "Stinger-steered transporter combination," a truck tractor semitrailer combination with a fifth wheel located on a drop frame which is located behind and below the rearmost axle of the power unit;

             (35)      "Tandem axle," two or more consecutive axles whose centers may be included between parallel transverse vertical planes spaced more than forty inches and not more than ninety- six inches apart, extending across the full width of the vehicle;

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             (36)      "Trailer," a vehicle without motive power designed for carrying property or passengers on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle;

             (37)      "Truck tractor," a 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;

             (38)      "Urban district," the territory contiguous to and including any street 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

             (39)      "Vehicle," a device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks; including bicycles and ridden animals.

Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0301; SL 1959, ch 250; SL 1967, ch 190; SL 1970, ch 175, §§ 2, 3; SL 1973, ch 195, §§ 1, 2; SL 1975, ch 205; SL 1988, ch 256; SL 1989, ch 256, §§ 9, 11; SL 1990, ch 257, § 4; SL 1996, ch 202, § 1; SL 1999, ch 151, § 4; SL 2004, ch 17, § 136; SL 2005, ch 169, § 3.