Have you seen stop signs on private property? It’s almost impossible to think that you, as a motorist, have not. They are all over the place—from shopping centers, to malls, to HOAs, and beyond. There is a lot of misunderstanding about these traffic control devices located on private property, and it is important to understand what they are, and what they mean.
Below, our friends from Blaszkow Legal, PLLC discuss the importance of stop signs on private property.
Importance Of Stop Signs On Private Property
As an initial matter, generally, traffic control devices such as stop signs on private property are not enforceable under your state’s applicable motor vehicle code. That means that a local police officer cannot sit in a shopping center and write tickets to people who roll through a stop sign within that property. If your state does not permit the enforcement of traffic laws on private property, then you may not be able to get a ticket for violating that device (meaning the stop sign).
However, that’s not the point! The presence of a stop sign, yield, or other traffic control device on private property can still be extremely important in the event of a car accident on that property! The presence of that stop sign might be irrelevant in terms of traffic law and receiving a ticket, but that stop sign can still have considerable bearing in the case in terms of whether a judge and a jury make determinations about a driver’s negligence!
Personal injury cases generally rise and fall based on negligence.
- Who did something they should not have done, or
- Did something that they should have done, and/or did it improperly, carelessly, or recklessly?
This is an (over)simplified definition of negligence. Negligence is the question confronted by personal injury lawyers, and what they have to prove when they go to court. A stop sign on private property will still be presented in a court of law, insofar as the defendant is shown to have ignored the stop sign! Remember this: just because the police cannot write you a ticket for it does not mean that you should not stop.
Many people disregard traffic control devices on property because of that reason (no cops). But if that person causes an accident, that stop sign, yield sign, or other traffic control device is going to show up again in that person’s life—often as a life-sized exhibit in the civil lawsuit that follows.
As a general rule, if you see a stop sign, regardless of where it is, you should stop! If you cause a motor vehicle accident, even if it’s on private property, you may still find the fact that you ignored that stop sign comes back to haunt you in trial, even though you never got a traffic ticket for it.
If you or someone you love has been injured on private or public property because of someone else’s negligence, a motorcycle accident lawyer can give you legal guidance on what your next steps should be.