What is a “Public Way?”

I recently had a client in my office, charged with Leaving the Scene of a Motor Vehicle Accident.  Essentially, she was in a parking lot, backed out of her parking space, was not paying attention to the passenger side of her car, swung too short, and…crash!  She finished pulling out of the parking spot, wrote down the license plate number of the other vehicle, and drove away.  She “was in a rush,” and therefore did not wait for the other owner to come out of the store.  As with any other time when you think no one is looking, there was a witness to the entire incident.  This client did not report the accident to anyone until after she received a telephone call from the local police department.  At that time, she told the police EVERYTHING.  She even called her insurance company, spoke on a recorded line, and told the claims adjustor EVERYTHING.  Setting aside for now the issue of “statements used against you in a court of law,” my client was adamant that she had a great case because she wasn’t on the road (not on a “way”) and therefore could not be found guilty of a “hit and run.”

The law uses the term “way” or “public way” in describing where a motor vehicle law can be enforced.  A public way, as most people can guess, includes streets, roads, avenues, and highways.  What most people don’t know, and what my client didn’t understand, is that a parking lot can also be considered a public way.  It is not necessarily private property, just like your own driveway is not necessarily private property.  Parking lots, and your driveway, are generally considered “semi-private” property.  This makes sense when you think about it.  Any customer wanting to enter the parking lot of the grocery store is generally invited there to conduct business.  There really isn’t anything “private” about the parking lot at all.  It is “a place to which the public has a right of access…”  Case law has upheld these issues by going as far as to say the parking lot of a closed shopping mall, where services at the mall (ATM, etc) can be accessed even when the stores are closed, is considered a “public way.”  In a case 3 years ago, the appellate court said that a pier may qualify as a “public way,” even where its entrance is blocked by a closed swinging gate, and signage limits access to authorized vehicles.  My rule of thumb…if you can drive a car or ride a motorcycle on it, some District Attorney can make an argument that it’s a public way.