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Stokes v. Lundeen6/21/2000
intersections.
"(d) Weather.
"(e) Visibility.
"(f) Any other conditions then existing.
"(2) The following apply to the offense described in this section:
"* * * * *
"(b) Speeds that are prima facie evidence of violation of this section are established by ORS 811.105."
ORS 811.105 (1995), read in its entirety, provides as follows:
"Any speed in excess of any of the following designated speeds is prima facie evidence of violation of the basic speed rule under ORS 811.100:
"(1) Any speed posted by authority granted under ORS 810.180.
"(2) If no speed is posted, any speed in excess of one of the following designated speeds is prima facie evidence of violation of the basic speed rule:
"(a) Fifteen miles per hour when driving on an alley.
"(b) Twenty miles per hour in a business district.
"(c) Twenty miles per hour when passing school grounds or a school crosswalk if notice of the grounds or crosswalk is indicated plainly by traffic control devices conforming to the requirements established under ORS 810.200 and posted under authority granted by ORS 810.210 and:
"(A) Children are present; or
"(B) A flashing light used as a traffic control device and operated under ORS 811.106 indicates that children may be arriving at or leaving school.
"(d) Twenty-five miles per hour in any public park or residence district not located within a city or within an urban growth boundary that is in a county with a population greater than 100,000.
"(e) Sixty-five miles per hour on any rural interstate highway.
"(f) Fifty-five miles per hour in locations not otherwise described in this section."
A fundamental purpose of the Oregon Vehicle Code, including ORS 811.100 and ORS 811.105, is " o provide maximum safety for all persons who travel or otherwise use the public highways of this state." ORS 801.020(11)(a). The basic speed rule pronounced in ORS 811.100 effectuates that purpose by prohibiting driving at speeds "greater than is reasonable and prudent" given the totality of conditions. ORS 811.100(2)(b) refers, in turn, to ORS 811.105 as determining that, in certain circumstances--viz., in alleys, in business districts, in school zones when children are present, in public parks, and in certain residential districts--certain speeds are prima facie not "reasonable and prudent." See ORS 811.105(2). So viewed, and understood, "passing school grounds [when] * * * children are present" is merely a variant of the same circumstantial concern that underlies the particularized treatment of "business districts" and "residential districts": In each circumstance, reduced speed is categorically "reasonable and prudent" because of the heightened risk of sudden, unexpected hazards.
Thus, subsection (2)(c)(A) was no more intended to protect children exclusively than subsection (2)(b) protects only business people and their customers or subsection (2)(d) protects only residents of a neighborhood and their visitors. Rather, context demonstrates that the statutory scheme as a whole protects the class of persons who use Oregon's public roadways and persons placed at risk by motorists who travel at greater than "reasonable and prudent" speeds. That construction not only comports with the breadth of the statutory purpose announced in ORS 801.020(11)(a), but also avoids the incongruity of extending the statute's protections to a child injured by a speeding driver--but not to an adult teacher or crossing guard hit by the same driver. Consequently, defendant, as a user of the public roadw
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