2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 66 - Motor Vehicles
Article 1 - General Provisions
Section 66-1-4.15 - Definitions.

As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "railroad" means a carrier of persons or property upon cars operated upon stationary rails;

B. "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;

C. "railroad train" means a steam engine, electric or other motor, with or without cars coupled thereto, operated upon rails;

D. "REAL ID-compliant driver's license" means a license or a class of license issued by a state or other jurisdiction pertaining to the authorizing of persons to operate motor vehicles and that meets federal requirements to be accepted by federal agencies for official federal purposes;

E. "REAL ID-compliant identification card" means an identification card that meets federal requirements to be accepted by federal agencies for official federal purposes;

F. "reconstructed vehicle" means any vehicle assembled or constructed largely by means of essential parts, new or used, derived from other vehicles or that, if originally otherwise assembled or constructed, has been materially altered by the removal of essential parts, new or used;

G. "recreational travel trailer" means a camping body designed to be drawn by another vehicle;

H. "recreational vehicle" means a vehicle with a camping body that has its own motive power, is affixed to or is drawn by another vehicle and includes motor homes, travel trailers and truck campers;

I. "registration" means registration certificates and registration plates issued under the laws of New Mexico pertaining to the registration of vehicles;

J. "registration number" means the number assigned upon registration by the division to the owner of a vehicle or motor vehicle required to be registered by the Motor Vehicle Code;

K. "registration plate" means the plate, marker, sticker or tag assigned by the division for the identification of the registered vehicle;

L. "residence 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 or more is in the main improved with residences or residences and buildings in use for business;

M. "revocation" means that the driver's license and privilege to drive a motor vehicle on the public highways are terminated and shall not be renewed or restored, except that an application for a new license may be presented to and acted upon by the division after the expiration of at least one year after date of revocation;

N. "right of way" means the privilege of the immediate use of the roadway;

O. "road tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and constructed not to carry a significant load on the road tractor, either independently or as any part of the weight of a vehicle or load drawn; and

P. "roadway" means that portion of a street or highway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder; when a highway includes two or more separate roadways, the term "roadway" refers to each roadway separately but not to all of the roadways collectively.

History: 1978 Comp., § 66-1-4.15, enacted by Laws 1990, ch. 120, § 16; 2001, ch. 127, § 2; 2007, ch. 319, § 8; 2019, ch. 167, § 4.

The 2019 amendment, effective October 1, 2019, defined "REAL ID-compliant driver's license" and "REAL ID-compliant identification card" as used in the Motor Vehicle Code; and added new Subsections D and E.

The 2007 amendment, effective June 15, 2007, defined "road tractor" as a motor vehicle primarily used for drawing vehicles.

The 2001 amendment, effective June 15, 2001, deleted "that exceeds neither eight feet in width nor forty feet in length, when equipped for the road" following "camping body" in Subsection E; and rewrote Subsection F, which formerly read " 'recreational vehicle' means a vehicle with a camping body that has its own motive power or is drawn by another vehicle".

Frontage of buildings within 300-foot area is what determines whether the scene of an accident is within a residential or business district rather than the combined area of the buildings and yards. Floeck v. Hoover, 1948-NMSC-021, 52 N.M. 193, 195 P.2d 86.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Meaning of "residence district," "business district," "school area," and the like in statutes and ordinances regulating speed of motor vehicles, 50 A.L.R.2d 343.