Most people won’t willingly break the law. You will always have some individuals in society who will break just about any law they like, but they’re definitely in the minority. Most citizens feel that laws exist for a reason, and they won’t break one if they actually know they’re doing it. 

However, it’s also possible that you can break the law without realizing it. Many people do these things without ever thinking of them. Usually, they get away with it, but every once in a while, one of these activities can come back to bite them.

As you read about these activities, think about whether you’re guilty of any of the behaviors that we’re describing. If so, you may want to change your ways.  

Speeding

The Columbus, Ohio metro area saw 14,390 car accidents in 2023. If you look at car wreck data from comparably-sized cities, you would probably see similar numbers. 

What causes so many accidents? If you look at driver behaviors, you can probably start to pick out trends relatively quickly. For instance, if you look at many of these car wrecks, you might quickly see that speeding played a part in many of them. 

Most people understand that if they speed, they’re breaking the law. However, they probably think there’s a difference between going two miles per hour over the speed limit and twenty miles per hour over it. 

In a sense, they’re right. If you go two miles per hour over the speed limit, whether that’s on the highway or on local roads, then a cop who sees you do it probably won’t pull you over. If they notice you exceeding the speed limit by twenty miles per hour or more, it’s more much likely that they will pull you over and ticket you.

Still, many people will exceed the speed limit slightly without thinking about it. Yes, they’re breaking the law, but they probably don’t look at it that way. 

In fact, if you stick exactly to the speed limit while on the highway, you will probably infuriate the people behind you. They will get angry at you because you’re not willingly breaking the law. 

Distracted Driving

You might also let something distract you while you’re driving. In some cases, that’s breaking the law as well. 

If you see a funny billboard, and you turn away from the road to laugh at it, that’s distracted driving. It’s not illegal. Still, it can cause an accident if the vehicle in front of you suddenly stops, and you can’t halt your car’s forward progress in time. 

You might crash into their rear bumper. While you didn’t break the law, you still acted in an unsafe way, allowing the accident to take place.

There’s a particular kind of distracted driving that does break the law in many parts of the country, though. That’s when you pull out your smartphone and use it while operating a motor vehicle.  

Various cities and states sometimes have different laws about this. Many states have gone to a legal framework, though, where using your smartphone while driving constitutes a crime. 

That’s probably a good thing. If you try to send a text or watch a video while driving, you can easily cause a crash.

If you decide to sneak a peek at what your friend just texted you while you’re driving, though, you’re breaking the law. You may not think about it at the time, but it’s technically true. 

Drunk Driving

Just about every driver knows that if they consume alcohol, and they’re over the legal limit when they drive, then that’s illegal. Most of them follow that law. It’s the “over the legal limit” part that sometimes causes problems for people. 

In most regions, you can still legally drive if you consume one alcoholic beverage. In other words, if you have something like a single glass of wine with your meal, you can probably still legally drive. You’re likely close to over the legal limit without actually exceeding it. 

What about if you have a person who’s 90 pounds, though? If they drink one glass of wine, it will probably intoxicate them more than someone twice that body weight. 

In that situation, maybe the 90-pound person drives after drinking just one alcohol beverage. If the police pull them over and give them a breathalyzer, though, they may fail it. They broke the law, even if they didn’t realize it. 

You might also have a larger, heavier person who ingests just one alcohol drink before driving. They may think they’re under the legal limit.

Maybe they drank something like a Long Island Iced Tea. It was just one drink, but it will put them over the legal limit. They are breaking the law without realizing it. 

Making Illegal Turns

You may also have a situation where someone breaks the law by making an illegal turn without noticing it. When that happens, maybe it’s because they took a right turn on a red light. 

They didn’t see a sign that told them they couldn’t legally turn on red there. Maybe they couldn’t ever legally make a right turn on red in that spot, or perhaps they couldn’t do it only at a certain time of day or on a particular day. 

This might happen with someone who doesn’t normally take that route. Perhaps they’re a traveler from out of state, and they think they can always take a right turn on red, even if that’s not the case. Once again, they’re breaking the law without realizing it. 

Jaywalking

If you jaywalk, many cities and states consider that breaking the law. However, some parts of the country have reached the point where they’ve decriminalized that action.

If you take advantage of a moment when there’s no cars to dart across the street, and you’re not at a crosswalk, then perhaps you broke the law, even if you didn’t think about it at the time.