China Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Virginia House Makes Rolling Right Turn Reckless Driving Virginia House passes bill imposing up to $2500 fine and possible jail time for boulevard stops. The Virginia House of Delegates on February 4 approved legislation that would make a rolling right-hand turn on a red light a reckless driving offense. The bill introduced by Delegate Bill Janis (R-Glen Allen) was approved with a 67 to 31 vote and is now pending before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. "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. Click on the link for the full article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 so glad not to be in VA anymore because of crap like this. here in TN they are voting to allow the California stop, which is a brief stop, just not a complete stop. This can only worsen the traffic problem up there.Just shows, to me, that VA is still only interesed in charging as much as they can to people by making minor infractions more serious, instead of actually addressing the major problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Hey, if you can't raise taxes you have to raise revenue some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Sometimes you have to sit back and smile. in Virginia you can't just raise taxes to generate revenue. That would be very bad. So, you come up with stupid legislation to generate that lost tax revenue. In Virginia you get hammered with lots and lots of little add on taxes, but never an open and out front tax. If passed it will stay passed until enough people complain, like previously, or some lawmakers start getting stopped and sited for said infraction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsHokieFan Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Call your delegate and state senator today Like right now What a bunch of horse mularkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stadium-Armory Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Here in Colorado, we take the California Roll one step further and allow people to roll stop signs while smoking a J. As a life long Virginia, and recent Colorado transplant, I can say with certainty that while I miss many things about VA and the nations capital, I am glad to be somewhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Not nearly as infuriating as any traffic violation being cause to search your vehicle but infuriating none the less. They've been making anything into reckless driving violations for a while now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenspandan Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Hey, if you can't raise taxes you have to raise revenue some way. virginia cops are just taxmen with mustaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Excuses Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 The reckless driving laws in this state are such ****ing baloney. My reckless driving charge (81 on I-95) was a load of horse crap. I was going at about 75ish and I sped up to over take a person using the left hand lane. I must've hit 81 for a brief second but the cop pulled me over near Spotsylvania and gave me a reckless citation when he could have easily given me 79 which would be a normal speeding ticket. Had to go to court in the middle of no where and now I have this dumb charge on my record for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 virginia cops are just taxmen with mustaches. Never trusted Tom Selleck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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