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Ark. Code Ann. § 27-32-101

Vehicles to be in safe mechanical condition

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Barker v. Clark (2000)

Most recently applied in United States v. Charlie Foster (October 2021)

Acts 1997, No. 974, § 9; 2015, No. 1158, § 11.

How often courts cite this section

200020102020202110
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) No person shall drive or move any vehicle subject to registration on any highway in this state unless the equipment on the vehicle is in good working order and adjustment as required for the vehicle's safe operation and unless the vehicle is in safe mechanical condition as not to endanger the driver, other occupants of the vehicle, or any other person.

(2) Any law enforcement officer having reason to believe that a vehicle may have safety defects shall have cause to stop the vehicle and inspect for safety defects.

(3) Should the officer determine that the vehicle is defective, he or she shall issue to the operator a safety compliance summons directing the operator to have the defect corrected.

(4) Any certified police officer having reasonable cause to believe that a motor vehicle is unsafe or not equipped as required by law or that the motor vehicle equipment is not in proper adjustment or repair, may require the driver of the motor vehicle to stop and submit the vehicle to an inspection and test as may be appropriate.

(5) In the event that the use of a vehicle in its present condition would, in the reasonable judgment of the officer, endanger the life of any member of the public, the officer may issue to the operator a citation for operating an unsafe vehicle and may require the vehicle to be parked at the owner's expense and not operated until it is made safe.

(6) The intent of this section is to make the vehicle operator aware of any vehicle safety defects and to provide the operator a reasonable opportunity to make necessary repairs without requiring the issuance of a citation which may result in the levying of fines and court costs.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.