§ 4103 — Obedience to authorized persons directing traffic

(a) (1) No person shall wilfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any of the following, who are invested by law with authority to direct, control, or regulate vehicle and pedestrian traffic:

a. A police officer.

b. An authorized flagperson.

c. A fire police officer.

d. A uniformed adult school crossing guard.

e. A commissioned constable.

(2) This subsection does not operate to relieve a driver of the duty to operate the driver’s vehicle with due regard to the safety of all persons using the highway.

(b) Any driver who, having received a visual or audible signal from a police officer identifiable by uniform, by motor vehicle or by a clearly discernible police signal to bring the driver’s vehicle to a stop, operates the vehicle in disregard of the signal or interferes with or endangers the operation of the police vehicle or who increases speed or extinguishes the vehicle’s lights and attempts to flee or elude the police officer shall be guilty of a class G felony, with a minimum fine of $575 which may not be suspended. Upon receiving notice of such conviction the Secretary, at the Secretary’s discretion, may forthwith revoke the operator’s or chauffeur’s license of the person so convicted for a period of 2 years. For each subsequent like offense, the person shall be guilty of a class E felony, with a minimum fine of $1,150 which may not be suspended. Upon receiving a court notice of conviction for a subsequent like offense, the Secretary shall revoke the operator’s or chauffeur’s license for an additional 3-year period. It shall be an affirmative defense for this section if the driver proceeds at or below the posted speed limit to a safe location or, at nighttime to a well-lit reasonable location and stops the vehicle at that point that the driver is not guilty of this section.

(c) If any vehicle is witnessed by a police officer to be in violation of subsection (b) of this section and the identity of the operator is not otherwise apparent, it shall be a rebuttable presumption that the persons in whose name such vehicle is registered, to whom a rental vehicle is leased or whose name appears on a company’s records as driving a company vehicle, committed such violation of subsection (b) of this section.

Legislative History

21 Del. C. 1953, § 4103; 54 Del. Laws, c. 160, § 1 ; 57 Del. Laws, c. 141 ; 57 Del. Laws, c. 670, § 13B ; 60 Del. Laws, c. 701, § 9 ; 64 Del. Laws, c. 164, § 1 ; 68 Del. Laws, c. 9, § 21 ; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1 ; 75 Del. Laws, c. 289, §§ 1-3 ; 85 Del. Laws, c. 9, § 1