Virginia House Makes Rolling Right Turn Reckless Driving
 

.....discuss away.....


Virginia House Makes Rolling Right Turn Reckless Driving


Virginia passes bill imposing up to $2500 fine and possible jail time for boulevard stops.

The Virginia House of Delegates and a state Senate committee approved legislation that would make a rolling right-hand turn on a red light a reckless driving offense. On Thursday the Senate Transportation Committee unanimously approved a bill introduced by Delegate Bill Janis (R-Glen Allen) which the lower chamber had approved by a 67 to 31 margin on February 4.

"Any person who drives a motor vehicle in violation of Section 46.2-833 is guilty of reckless driving," House Bill 1993 states.

Under current law, Section 46.2-833, as referenced above, makes it an infraction either to turn right without stopping on a red light or to enter an intersection a fraction of a second after the light changes to red. The effect of the bill would be to change the penalty for a California stop into a class one misdemeanor carrying six license points, a fine of up to $2500, up to one year in jail and a six-month driver's license suspension. US Department of Transportation statistics show that rolling stops rarely cause accidents (view report).

This outcome is clearly contemplated by the House Courts of Justice Committee which amended the original version of the bill which only sought to impose the reckless penalty on anyone who "unintentionally causes the serious bodily injury or death of another" through red light running. The committee also struck a provision ensuring that the reckless penalty is not applied to infractions detected by a red light camera.

Virginia lawmakers are notorious for turning what other states treat as ordinary traffic infractions into serious misdemeanors. For example, the offense of driving as little as 10 MPH over the limit on some rural interstates may only be charged as reckless driving. Section 46.2-860 of the state code allows police to cite motorists who fail to use a turn signal with reckless driving. In an interview with TheNewspaper, senior Virginia State Police officials confirmed that there are no written guidelines covering offenses that can be treated either as infractions or as reckless driving, leaving police officers free to cite under the reckless statute at their discretion.

The issue came to light in 2007 when the state attempted to impose a mandatory $1050 tax on reckless driving convictions which turned out primarily to involve minor speeding offenses. A bicyclist in Newport News was charged with reckless driving for pedaling too fast. In practice, the state uses the reckless charge to discourage motorists from challenging citations by forcing a plea bargain that is favorable to the state.

I have learned one thing from all you Virginian's............Virginia laws suck

seriously :wtf:

I'm never coming out to FFX again!

:facepalm: yeah, at least they increased the speed limit on most interstates here to 70mph though!

Problem is, they expect you to actually do the limit. In MD, they say 65 and mean roughly 75 to 80 before you get pulled over.

lol jk don't try this at home.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll probably find that out the hard way at some point in time :tiphat:

VA is a police state.. sucks to drive here..

Wait, someone remind me why/how maryland is worse to live in than virginia? :ugh2:

failginia

NoVa is ******* crazy with cops. I wind up driving there every other weekend or so and it's scary man. Cops eeeverywhere. There are even cops watching the HOV lane constantly. Always at least one person pulled over on 65. Needless to say, I refuse to speed even by 1mph when I'm there.

You, sir, are quite honest in your statement. I remember driving home one night from the OC car show. It was at least midnight or a little later and I was exiting off one highway and merging onto another. I had a MD state cop so far up my arse off the exit (I was doing 65 as posted earlier then down to the posted exit speed) that once he had the chance, he actually went around me on the drivers side using what little bit of curb there was. I was like :eek: WHOA! Really now? :bowrofl:

Man! Another reason why VA sucks...

i drive from coast to coast in the summer for work, all over each state from WA to ID to OR to CA to NV to AZ to NM to CO to OK to MI to KY to VA then home. I can tell you with no reservation that VA is definitely the worst for cops. I am on the road for 3 months until i get to VA and every time I get pulled over for something harmless.

Hookers in the trunk isn't considered "harmless" on the east coast, Falcor. :tup:

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the car you were driving though. :stirthepot: