There’s plenty of confusion to go around here.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=35631391
Deputy: “I don’t care, you’re right in the middle of the road.” No, the boarder was on the shoulder, at least in the part of the video the TV station broadcast.
Was that legal? Bicycling is allowed on shoulders in many states. I couldn’t find anything on that on the Utah legislative site section on bicycles, http://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title41/Chapter6A/41-6a-P11.html.
But the man was on a skateboard, not a bicycle. Under Utah law, the skateboard is defined as a vehicle, last definition here: http://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title41/Chapter6a/41-6a-S1105.html and so, under the law, the skateboarder should have been in the travel lane, not on the shoulder or a sidewalk, if any, as little sense as that may make.
So, the officer’s charge was false. If the boarder were defined as a pedestrian, then shoulder use in the absence of a sidewalk would be legal if the boarder was traveling opposite the direction of traffic (he wasn’t), — not that this is sensible when it would have required crossing to the far side of a multi-lane road. http://le.utah.gov/…/Title41/Chapter6A/41-6a-S1009.html.
There is a sidewalk, as shown in Google Earth and Street View images.
The TV station video is edited at 00:25. It doesn’t show the entire conversation between the deputy and the boarder before the boarder attempted to flee — so we don’t know about an opportunity to comply. Other question is how the boarder could comply if there was nowhere to go except up and down a road bordered by vegetation. The deputy ran after the boarder and attempted to stop him. Probably better to let him go. The boarder fought the deputy, violently. Not smart at all.
OK, I found the permission for shoulder use, in the definition not of “shoulder area” but of “roadway.” Just how confusing is it possible to make the law, by placing a permission to ride on the shoulder not only in the definitions section but under a definition of a different part of the highway cross-section?
“‘Roadway’ does not include the sidewalk, berm, or shoulder, even though any of them are used by persons riding bicycles or other human-powered vehicles.”
And, as the skateboard is a human-powered vehicle, the boarder was entirely within his rights to ride on the shoulder, unless a local ordinance prohibited that. He would have had a successful day in court if he had just let the officer cite him with an infraction. He can still get that charge invalidated, not that it matters much in the light of his ensuing conduct.