“Road rage” is not a defined crime under Las Vegas or Nevada law. However, hostile actions and words provoked by another driver’s actions could lead to your arrest and conviction on a number of criminal charges.
At its most extreme, road rage can lead to Nevada voluntary manslaughter (NRS 200.050) charges if someone is killed. Such incidents are, fortunately, rare. Instead, road rage in Las Vegas often leads to four other common criminal charges:
Las Vegas Road Rage and Reckless Driving Charges
If you express your road rage by driving in a way that isn’t safe, you might find yourself charged with reckless driving (NRS 484B.653). NRS 484B.653 makes it a crime to “drive a vehicle in willful or wanton disregard of the safety of persons or property.”
A first Nevada reckless driving offense (without injury) is a misdemeanor. Penalties can include:
- Up to 6 months in jail, and/or
- A fine of up to $1,000.
If your reckless driving causes the death of, or substantial bodily harm to, another person, it is a category B felony. In Nevada, the consequences of felony reckless driving leading to serious injury or death can include:
- 1-6 years in Nevada State Prison, and
- A fine of $2,000 -$5,000.
The maximum prison term becomes 10 years if the incident involved speeding at least 50 mph over the speed limit or took place in a pedestrian safety zone, school zone or a school crossing zone.
Aggressive Driving
NRS 484B.650 — Nevada’s “aggressive driving” law — is similar to reckless driving and is punished with the same penalties.
NRS 484B.650 sets forth the specific acts that constitute aggressive driving. These include:
- Speeding,
- Following another vehicle too closely,
- Dangerous lane changes, or
- Driving in a way that “creates an immediate hazard, regardless of its duration, to another vehicle or to another person.”
Assault Charges
You can be charged with assault (NRS 200.471) for a road rage-related incident when:
- Your anger is expressed through a threat or attempt to hurt or use force against another driver or anyone else, or
- You intentionally make such other person feel that he/she is about to be physically harmed.
Assault without a deadly weapon is a Nevada misdemeanor, with penalties that can include:
- Up to 6 months in jail, and/or
- A fine of up to $1,000 fine.
If you commit assault with a deadly weapon (“ADW”), it is a Nevada category B felony.
Nevada law defines “deadly weapon” as:
- Any instrument which, if used in the ordinary manner contemplated by its design and construction, will or is likely to cause substantial bodily harm or death, or
- Any weapon, device, instrument, material or substance which, under the circumstances in which it is used, attempted to be used or threatened to be used, is readily capable of causing substantial bodily harm or death.
So under Nevada law, a car can constitute a deadly weapon if you try to ram someone or run someone over with it. You might also be charged with ADW if you threaten another driver with a potentially deadly weapon contained in your car, such as a:
- gun,
- knife,
- pipe,
- baseball bat, or
- golf club.
Punishment for assault with a deadly weapon in Nevada carries a potential punishment of:
- 1-6 years in prison, and/or
- A fine of up to $5,000.
People who act on their road rage face various criminal charges in Las Vegas
Battery Charges
If you hit someone or use force against them due to road rage, you might face battery charges under NRS 200.481.
Consequences of a Nevada battery conviction start at a misdemeanor with penalties of:
- Up to six months in jail, and/or
- A fine of up to $1,000 fine.
However, if you use a deadly weapon or harm someone, you face significantly greater penalties for battery under NRS 200.481, or even more serious Nevada assault charges.
Additional Reading
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- Road rage: a psychiatric phenomenon? – Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
- Road Rage – The Journal for Justice Professionals.
- Driving Frequency and Its Impact on Road Rage Offending and Victimization: A View From Opportunity Theory – Violence and Victims.
- American Road Rage: A Scary and Tangled Cultural-Legal Pastiche – Nebraska Law Review.
- The “Homogamy” of Road Rage: Understanding the Relationship Between Victimization and Offending Among Aggressive and Violent Motorists – Violence and Victims.
