§ 38-8. Definitions.
(a)
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning. When in a specific section of this chapter a different meaning is given for a term defined for general purposes in this section, the specific section's meaning and application of the term shall control.
Abandoned vehicle means a vehicle or motor vehicle which has been determined by a New Mexico law enforcement agency:
(1)
To have been left unattended on either public or private property for at least 30 days;
(2)
Not to have been reported stolen;
(3)
Not to have been claimed by any person asserting ownership; and
(4)
Not to have shown by normal record checking procedures to be owned by any person.
Alcoholic beverage means distilled or rectified spirits, potable alcohol, brandy, whisky, rum, gin, aromatic bitters bearing federal internal revenue strip stamps, or any similar alcoholic beverage, including all blended or fermented beverages, dilutions or mixtures of one or more of the foregoing containing more than one-half of one percent alcohol but excluding medicinal bitters.
Alley means a street intended to provide access to the rear or side of lots or buildings and not intended for the use of through vehicular traffic.
Authorized emergency vehicle means any vehicle of the fire department, police vehicles, U.S. government vehicles, ambulances and such emergency vehicles of municipal departments or public utilities as are designated or authorized by the chief of police or the county manager.
Bicycle means every device propelled by human power, upon which any person may ride, having two tandem wheels, except scooters and similar devices.
Bus means every motor vehicle designed and used for the transportation of persons; and every motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation.
Business district means the territory contiguous to and including a street and within 300 feet from the street where there are buildings in use for business or industrial purposes including, but not limited to, hotels, banks or office buildings, and public buildings which occupy at least 50 percent of the frontage on one side or 50 percent of the frontage collectively on both sides of the street.
Cancellation means that a driver's license is annulled and terminated because of some error or defect or because the licensee is no longer entitled to such license, but cancellation of a license is without prejudice and application for a new license may be made at any time after such cancellation.
Casual sale means the sale of a motor vehicle by the registered owner of the vehicle if the owner has not sold more than four vehicles in that calendar year.
Combination means any connected assemblage of a motor vehicle and one or more semitrailers, trailers, or semitrailers converted to trailers by means of a converter gear.
Controlled access street means every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of access except at such points only and in such manner as may be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over the highway, street or roadway.
Converter gear means any assemblage of one or more axles with a fifth wheel mounted thereon, designed for use in a combination to support the front end of a semitrailer but not permanently attached thereto. A converter gear shall not be considered a vehicle, as that term is used in NMSA 1978, ch. 66, but weight attributable thereto shall be included in declared gross weight.
Crosswalk means:
(1)
That part of a street at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the street measured from the curbs, or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway;
(2)
Any portion of a street at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface.
Curb loading zone means a space adjacent to a curb reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles during the loading or unloading of passengers or materials.
Daytime means from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset.
Dealer means any person who sells or solicits or advertises the sale of new or used motor vehicles, house trailers or trailers subject to registration in this state. Dealer shall not include:
(1)
Receivers, trustees, administrators, executors, guardians or other persons appointed by or acting under judgment, decree or order of any court;
(2)
Public officers while performing their duties as such officers;
(3)
Persons making casual sales of their own vehicles duly registered and licensed to them by the state;
(4)
Finance companies, banks and other lending institutions covering sales of repossessed vehicles; or
(5)
Licensed brokers under the Manufactured Housing Act, NMSA 1978, § 60-14-1 et seq., who for a fee, commission or valuable consideration engage in brokerage activities related to the sale, exchange, or lease-purchase of pre-owned manufactured homes on a site installed for a consumer.
Department means the county police department.
Designated accessible parking space for persons with significant mobility limitation means any space, including an access aisle, that is marked and reserved for the parking of a passenger vehicle that carries registration plates or a parking placard with the international symbol of access issued in accordance with NMSA 1978, § 66-3-16 and that is designated by a conspicuously posted sign bearing the international symbol of access and, if the parking space is paved, by a clearly visible depiction of this symbol painted in blue on the pavement of the space.
Director means the secretary of the state taxation and revenue department.
Divided street means any street containing a physical barrier, intervening space or clearly indicated dividing section to separate vehicular traffic traveling in opposite directions.
Division (without further specification) means division of motor vehicles or motor vehicle division.
Driveaway-towaway operation means any operation in which any motor vehicle, new or used, constitutes the commodity being transported, when one set or more of wheels of any such motor vehicle is on the street during the course of transportation, whether or not the motor vehicle furnishes the motive power.
Driver means every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, including a motor-driven cycle, upon a street or who is exercising control over, or steering, a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle or who operates or is in actual physical control of an off-highway motor vehicle.
Driver's license means a license or a class of license issued by a state or other jurisdiction to an individual that authorizes the individual to drive a motor vehicle.
Explosives means any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is commonly used or intended for the purpose of producing an explosion and that contains any oxidizing and combustive units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or packing that an ignition by fire, friction, concussion, percussion or detonator of any part of the compound or mixture may cause such a sudden generation of highly heated gases that the resultant gaseous pressures are capable of producing destructive effects on contiguous objects or of destroying life or limb.
Farm tractor means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows and mowing machines and other implements of husbandry.
First offender means a person who for the first time under state law or federal law or municipal code has been adjudicated guilty of the charge of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug which renders the person incapable of safely driving a motor vehicle regardless of whether the person's sentence was suspended or deferred.
Flammable liquid means any liquid that has a flashpoint of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or less, as determined by a Tagliabue or equivalent closed-up test device.
Freight curb loading zone means a space adjacent to a curb for the exclusive use of vehicles during the loading or unloading of freight.
Hazardous materials means a substance or material in a quantity and form that may pose an unreasonable risk to health, safety or property when transported in commerce.
House trailer means a manufactured home.
Implement of husbandry means every vehicle which is designed for agricultural purposes and exclusively used by the owner in the conduct of his agricultural operations.
Intersection means:
(1)
The area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or, if none, then the lateral boundary lines of the roadways or two streets which join one another at, or approximately at, right angles, or the area within which vehicles traveling upon different streets joining at any other angle may come in conflict;
(2)
Where a street includes two roadways 30 feet or more apart, every crossing of each roadway of such divided street by an intersecting street shall be regarded as a separate intersection. If the intersecting street also includes two roadways 30 feet or more apart, every crossing of two roadways of such highways shall be regarded as a separate intersection.
The junction of an alley with a roadway shall not constitute an intersection.
Laned roadway means a roadway which is divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for vehicular traffic.
License or license to operate a motor vehicle means any driver's license or any other license or permit to operate a motor vehicle issued under, or granted by, the laws of this state including:
(1)
Any temporary license or instruction permit; and
(2)
Any non-resident's operating privilege as defined in this section.
Manual of uniform traffic-control devices means the manual used by traffic engineering to establish nationally standardized signs, signals, markings and devices used in traffic control.
Manufactured home means a movable or portable housing structure that exceeds either a width of eight feet or length of 40 feet, constructed to be towed on its own chassis and designed to be installed with or without a permanent foundation for human occupancy.
Mobile home means a house trailer, other than one held as inventory for sale or resale, that exceeds either a width of eight feet or a length of 40 feet, when equipped for the road.
Moped means a two-wheeled or three-wheeled vehicle with an automatic transmission and a motor having a piston displacement of less than 50 cubic centimeters, that is capable of propelling the vehicle at a maximum speed of not more than 30 miles an hour on level ground at sea level.
Motorcycle means every motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, but excluding a tractor.
Motor home means a camping body built on a self-propelled motor vehicle chassis so designed that seating for driver and passengers is within the body itself.
Motor vehicle means every vehicle which is self-propelled and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from batteries or from overhead trolley wires, but not operated upon rails.
Municipality means the County of Los Alamos.
Nighttime means the hours from a half hour after sunset to a half hour before sunrise.
Non-resident means every person who is not a resident of this state.
Non-resident's operating privilege means the privilege conferred upon a non-resident by the laws of this state pertaining to the operation by the non-resident of a motor vehicle or the use of a motor vehicle owned by the non-resident, in this state.
Off-highway motor vehicle means any motor vehicle operated or used exclusively off the highway of this state and that is not legally equipped for operation on the highways of this state.
Official time standard means whenever certain hours are named in this chapter they shall mean standard time or daylight saving time as may be in current use in this municipality.
Official traffic-control devices means all signs, signals, markings and devices not inconsistent with this chapter placed or erected by authority of a public body or official having jurisdiction, for the purpose of regulating, warning or guiding traffic.
Operator means driver, as defined in this section.
Owner means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle and may include a conservator, guardian, personal representative, executor or similar fiduciary or, if a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease 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, if a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then such conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor.
Park and parking, when prohibited, mean the standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, other than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in loading and unloading.
Passenger curb loading zone means a place adjacent to a curb reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles during the loading or unloading of passengers.
Pedestrian means any person on foot.
Person means every natural person, firm, co-partnership, association, corporation or other legal entity.
Placard or parking placard means a card-like device that identifies the vehicle as being currently in use to transport a person with severe mobility impairment and issued pursuant to NMSA 1978, § 66-3-16 to be displayed inside a motor vehicle so as to be readily visible to an observer outside the vehicle.
Pneumatic tire means every tire in which compressed air is designed to support the load.
Pole trailer means any vehicle without motive power, designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach, or pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly-shaped loads such as poles, structures, pipes or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.
Police or peace officer means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations of this chapter.
Private road, driveway and private parking area means every way or place in private ownership used for vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission from the owner, but not other persons.
Public holidays means New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, or any other day designated a holiday by the council.
Recreational travel trailer means a camping body designed to be drawn by another vehicle.
Recreational vehicle means a vehicle with a camping body that either has its own motive power or is drawn by another vehicle.
Registration number means the number assigned by the motor vehicle division to the owner of a vehicle or motor vehicle required to be registered by the Motor Vehicle Code.
Registration plate means the plate, marker, sticker or tag assigned by the motor vehicle division for the identification of the registered vehicle.
Residence district means the territory contiguous to and including a street not comprising a business district when the property on the street for a distance of 300 feet or more is in the main improved with residences or residences and buildings in use for business.
Revocation means that the driver's license and privilege to drive a motor vehicle on the public streets are terminated and shall not be renewed or restored, except that an application for a new license may be presented and acted upon by the division after the expiration of at least one year after date of revocation.
Right-of-way means the privilege of the immediate use of the roadway.
Road tractor means every motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon, either independently or as any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn.
Roadway means that portion of a street improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. If a street includes two or more separate roadways, the term "roadway," as used in this chapter, refers to any such roadway separately but not to all such roadways collectively.
Safety zone means the area or space officially set apart within a street for the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is protected or is so marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone.
School bus means a commercial motor vehicle used to transport preprimary, primary or secondary school students from home to school, from school to home, or to and from school-sponsored events, but not including any vehicle:
(1)
Operated by a common carrier, subject to and meeting all requirements of the state public regulation commission but not used exclusively for the transportation of pupils;
(2)
Operated solely by a government-owned transit authority, if the transit authority meets all safety requirements of the state public regulation commission but is not used exclusively for transportation of pupils; or
(3)
Operated as a per capita feeder as defined in NMSA 1978, § 22-16-6.
Semitrailer means any vehicle, without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle.
Sidewalk means that portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, intended for the use of pedestrians.
Solid tire means every tire of rubber or other resilient material that does not depend upon compressed air for the support of the load.
Stand and standing mean the halting of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, other than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in receiving or discharging passengers.
State means a state, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any state of the Republic of Mexico or the Federal District of Mexico or a province of the Dominion of Canada.
State highway means any public highway which has been designated as a state highway by the legislature, the state highway commission or the secretary of transportation.
Stop (when required) means complete cessation from movement.
Stop, stopping and standing (when prohibited) mean any stopping or standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic-control sign or signal.
Street and highway mean every way or place generally open to the use of the public as a matter of right for the purpose of vehicular travel, even though it may be temporarily closed or restricted for the purpose of construction, maintenance, repair or reconstruction.
Subsequent offender means a person who was previously a first offender and who again, under state law, federal law or municipal code or a tribal law, has been adjudicated guilty of the charge of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug which rendered the person incapable of safely driving a motor vehicle regardless of whether the person's sentence is suspended or deferred.
Suspension means that the driver's license and privilege to drive a motor vehicle on the public highways are temporarily withdrawn.
Taxicab means a motor vehicle used in the transportation of persons for hire, having a normal seating capacity of not more than seven persons.
Through street and through highway mean every street or highway portion on which vehicular traffic is given preferential right-of-way, and at the entrances to which vehicular traffic from intersecting highways is required by law to yield right-of-way to vehicles on such through street or highway in obedience to a stop sign, yield sign or other official traffic-control device, when such signs or devices are erected as provided in this chapter.
Traffic means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, and other conveyances either singly or together using any street for purposes of travel.
Traffic-control signal means any device, whether manually, electrically or mechanically operated, by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and to proceed.
Trailer means any vehicle, without motive power, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, and so constructed that no significant part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle and includes, but is not limited to a semitrailer, camp trailer (including tent trailers), unmounted camper, trailer coach, utility trailer, horse trailer, concession trailer, dump or dry freight trailer, livestock trailer, tanker trailer, low, tilt, or pole trailer, gooseneck trailer, vehicle transport trailer, or fifth-wheel travel or bed trailer, or similar wheeled device connected to and towed behind a vehicle.
Travel trailer means a trailer with a camping body and includes recreational travel trailers and camping trailers.
Trial court means the magistrate, municipal or district court which tries the case concerning an alleged violation of a provision of this chapter and the Motor Vehicle Code.
Truck means every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property.
Truck camper means a camping body designed to be loaded onto, or affixed to, the bed or chassis of a truck. This camping body, when combined with a truck or truck cab and chassis, even though not attached permanently thereto, becomes a part of the motor vehicle and they are a recreational unit to be known as a truck camper. There are three general types of truck campers:
(1)
Slide-in-camper means a camping body designed to be loaded onto and unloaded from the bed of a pickup truck;
(2)
Chassis-mount camper means a camping body designed to be affixed to a truck cab and chassis; and
(3)
Pickup-cover and camper shell means a camping body designed to provide an all-weather protective enclosure over the bed of a pickup truck and to be affixed thereto.
Truck tractor means every 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.
Unhitched trailer means a trailer not physically connected to an operable vehicle.
Validating sticker means the tab or sticker issued by the division to signify, upon a registration plate, renewed registration.
Vehicle means every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a street, including any frame, chassis or body of any vehicle or motor vehicle.
Walkway means any concrete or surfaced path for use of pedestrians and, if not prohibited, for use of bicycles.
Wrecker of vehicles means every person actively engaged in the business of acquiring vehicles for the purpose of dismantling such vehicles as scrap material or for the resale of reclaimable parts and who, for such purposes, maintains within this state an established place of business.
(b)
Any other term is used in its commonly accepted meaning except where such term has been defined elsewhere in this chapter or defined in NMSA 1978, §§ 66-1-4.1—66-1-4.21.
(Ord. No. 85-218, § 2, 1995; Code 1985, §§ 10.01.000—10.01.096; Ord. No. 02-236, § 3, 12-17-2013; Ord. No. 02-256, § 68, 7-7-2015; Ord. No. 02-260, § 1, 1-5-2016)
State law reference
Similar provisions, NMSA 1978, §§ 66-1-4—66-1-4.21.
Editor's note
Definitions generally, § 1-2.