If, in the course of whatever activities you were doing that resulted in you receiving a reckless driving charge, there is harm caused to either a child or a school crossing guard that is on duty, your charges can be upgraded to an aggravated reckless driving.

The statute for aggravated reckless driving is contained within the general reckless driving statute. It’s just one of the subsections.

Basically, harm to a child or a crossing guard can upgrade a reckless driving to a Class Four felony which is punishable by up to one to three years in a penitentiary. Permanent great bodily hard or permanent disability to a child or a school crossing guard as a result of your reckless driving will automatically upgrade to an aggravated reckless driving charge.

A conviction on an aggravated reckless driving is a Class Three felony, which is three to seven years in a state penitentiary. Basically, the aggravated reckless driving comes as a result of your reckless driving resulting in the great bodily harm or permanent disfigurement of a child or of a crossing guard that’s on duty.

I have seen other cases upgraded to aggravated reckless in the event that an individual that is harmed received great bodily harm as the result of reckless driving. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a child or a school crossing guard.

If it’s Joe Public crossing the street that gets struck by a reckless driver and permanently disfigured, the state would have a strong case for charging with aggravated reckless driving, but the state legislation has codified the language of a child or school crossing guard right into the statute.