Buckle Up and Slow Down: Virginia Cracks Down on Reckless Driving

Backseat passengers in Virginia will now have to buckle up under a new state law. And street takeovers, street racing, and excessive speeders will now face harsher penalties — possibly even criminal charges — under new legislation.

Three bills that took effect on July 1 aim to reduce the number of driving crashes and fatalities in the commonwealth.

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles recorded 126,244 total crashes in 2024, with 918 fatalities. More than half the fatalities involved unbelted passengers. And speed was a factor in 25,705 vehicle accidents in 2024, according to the DMV.

The number of crashes has steadily increased since 2020, when the commonwealth saw 105,600 crashes.

“Too many lives are lost on our roads due to poor decisions,” Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller III said in a press release. “This is a common-sense law that will have a life-saving impact.”

New fine for driving or riding without seat belts

House Bill 2475 requires any driver and all passengers to wear seat belts. Formerly, Virginia required people in only front seats to wear seat belts. The penalty is a $25 fine, but it won’t add points to licenses.

Virginia ranks last in the nation in seat belt use, at 73% compliance, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The national average is 92% compliance.

Targeting dangerous street takeovers, street racing, and high speeds

House Bill 2036 expands the definition of reckless driving to include street racing and illegal street takeovers. The new law targets anyone “who purposefully slows, stops, or impedes, or attempts to slow, stop, or impede, the movement of traffic” for racing purposes.

Penalties for such offenses include a Class 1 misdemeanor, license suspension, and license revocation.

Finally, House Bill 2096 allows the courts to order anyone convicted of speeding over 100 mph, repeat speeding offenders, and drivers with excessive points on their license to install intelligent speed assistance systems in their vehicles. These monitors use GPS to track local speed limits and restrict how fast the car can drive based on those limits.

They can also record how fast a vehicle is moving and send that data to the Commission on the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program.

What’s next? The trend hitting Virginia’s insurance market

Accidents, speeding violations, and crashes have affected every driver in Virginia’s insurance market.

Average car insurance rates across the state rose by 33% in 2024, according to a recent Insurify study, landing Virginia among the states with the fastest-rising premiums.

On average, Virginia drivers pay $185 per month for full coverage and $104 for liability-only insurance, according to Insurify’s data. With a speeding ticket, full-coverage rates jump to $237 per month. An accident increases full coverage to $221 per month.

“Any accident or claim will almost certainly raise your rates, regardless of fault,” said Samuel Goddard, an Insurify insurance agent. “And this also affects rates for other drivers in the state.”

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