All Posts Tagged With: "abusive driver fees"

I received a newsletter from the state Senator from my district, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis. This newsletter discusses several of the new laws that became effective July 1, 2007. A considerable amount time is taken to discuss the new abusive driver fees. Virginia made national news for this one. Fees up to several thousand dollars can be assessed on anyone that has been convicted of reckless driving after July 1, 2007. When discussing this law lawmakers give as examples driving while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter, eluding the police, passing a stopped school bus and street racing. Here’s the thing, in Virginia driving 20 miles per hour above the speed limit or above 80 no matter what the speed limit is (even 65) is defined as reckless driving by law. On I-95 for instance there are many times when the flow of traffic is above 80 miles per hour so this is easy to get a ticket for reckless driving if you are simply going with the flow (of course, that’s no excuse). Here’s the kicker: the fees only apply to Virginia residents. This is because the fines for traffic violations actually go to support the schools and our governor and the House of Delegates want to raise money for transportation. So they created a new fee that would support transportation spending. And because these fees are “civil remedial fees” they can’t be levied against out-of-state drivers because it would be against the state constitution. So instead of changing the law to help with transportation they create a convoluted one that isn’t fair to the state’s residents themselves.

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