A. Off-highway motor vehicles issued a validating sticker or nonresident permit may be driven adjacent to a highway, yielding to all vehicles entering or exiting the highway, in a manner so as not to interfere with traffic upon the highway, only for the purpose of gaining access to or returning from areas designed for the operation of off-highway motor vehicles by the shortest possible route and when no other route is available or when the area adjacent to a highway is being used as a staging area. Such use must occur between the highway and fencing that separates the highway from private or public lands.
B. When snow conditions permit, an off-highway motor vehicle may be operated on the right-hand side of a highway, parallel, but not closer than ten feet, to the inside of the plow bank.
History: 1953 Comp., § 64-3-1012, enacted by Laws 1978, ch. 35, § 208; 1985, ch. 189, § 12; 2005, ch. 325, § 15.
The 2005 amendment, effective January 1, 2006, deleted the former provision that an off-highway motor vehicle issued a registration plate could be moved by non mechanical means adjacent to a highway; provided in Subsection A that an off-highway motor vehicle issued a validating sticker or nonresident permit may be driven adjacent to a highway, yielding to all vehicles entering or exiting the highway, only for the purpose of gaining access to designated off-highway motor vehicle areas by the shortest possible route when no other route is available or when the area adjacent to a highway is used as a staging area and that the use must occur between the highway and fencing that separates the highway from private or public lands; and added Subsection B to provide that when snow conditions permit an off-highway motor vehicle may be operated on the right-hand side of the highway, not closer than ten feet to the inside of the plow bank.
Structure New Mexico Statutes
Part 11 - OFF-HIGHWAY MOTOR VEHICLES
Section 66-3-1001 - Short title.
Section 66-3-1001.1 - Definitions.
Section 66-3-1003 - Off-highway motor vehicles; registration.
Section 66-3-1003.1 - Recompiled.
Section 66-3-1004.1 - Repealed.
Section 66-3-1005 - Exemptions.
Section 66-3-1006 - Grounds for refusing registration or certificate of title.
Section 66-3-1007 - Evidentiary value of certificate of title.
Section 66-3-1008 - Validating stickers to be furnished by division.
Section 66-3-1010 - Licensing.
Section 66-3-1010.2 - Off-highway motor vehicle safety permit; requirements; issuance.
Section 66-3-1010.3 - Operation and equipment; safety requirements.
Section 66-3-1010.4 - Safety helmet; civil liability.
Section 66-3-1010.5 - Requirements of dealers to distribute safety information.
Section 66-3-1011 - Operation on streets or highways; prohibited areas.
Section 66-3-1012 - Driving of off-highway motor vehicles adjacent to highway.
Section 66-3-1013 - Liability; local registration prohibited.
Section 66-3-1014 - Accidents and accident reports.
Section 66-3-1015 - Enforcement.
Section 66-3-1017 - Off-highway motor vehicle advisory board created; members; compensation.
Section 66-3-1018 - Department; powers and duties.
Section 66-3-1019 - Fund created; disposition.