Abstract

High-speed vehicular flight from law enforcement constitutes one of the most persistently underaddressed forms of public endangerment in contemporary American criminal law. This treatise advances a philosophical and legal argument for the enactment of the Vehicular Public Endangerment Act (VPEA), a proposed standalone penal statute that classifies the use of a motor vehicle in flight from law enforcement as the deployment of a deadly weapon against the general public. Drawing from moral philosophy, criminal law theory, constitutional jurisprudence, and public safety data, this work argues that existing legal frameworks inadequately address the compounding harm that fleeing suspects impose upon innocent motorists and bystanders. The proposed statute introduces a per-vehicle endangerment model, in which each civilian vehicle placed in direct peril constitutes a separate criminal count, analogous to the established legal treatment of discharging a firearm in a populated area. The treatise defends three central premises: (a) a motor vehicle operated at high speed in flight from law enforcement constitutes a lethal instrument under established deadly weapon doctrine; (b) continued flight beyond 100 feet of a lawful command to stop demonstrates willful intent to endanger the public, warranting a conclusive presumption of mens rea; and (c) proportional, compounding penalties calibrated to speed increments and the number of vehicles endangered are both philosophically just and practically necessary for deterrence. The proposed statute is designed for immediate legislative enactment and is accompanied by full statutory text, philosophical justification, and a substantive counterargument analysis.