Virginia Will Punish Fast Drivers With Devices That Limit Their Speed (washingtonpost.com)
- Reference: 0176842705
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/0019211/virginia-will-punish-fast-drivers-with-devices-that-limit-their-speed
- Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/27/virginia-speed-limit-device/
> Virginia is set to become the first state in the country to require some reckless drivers to put devices on their cars that [1]make it impossible to drive too fast . D.C. passed similar legislation last year. Several other states, including Maryland, are considering joining them. It's an embrace of a technological solution to a human problem: Speeding contributes to more than 10,000 deaths a year. Under the Virginia legislation, a judge can decide to order drivers to install the speed limiters in their vehicles in lieu of taking away their driving privileges or sending them to jail. It takes effect in July 2026.
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> Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) said various advocacy groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Safety Council, gave him the idea. He drove a car outfitted with the technology and was impressed. "It was easy to use, and once you're engaged it's impossible to go over the speed limit," he said. "It will make our streets safer." He thinks the device is preferable to suspending drivers' licenses, a punishment that people frequently ignore because they have no other way of getting to work or the store or taking their children to school. It's an approach similar to using an interlock device that requires a person convicted of drunken driving to pass a Breathalyzer test to start their car.
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> Hope wanted anyone convicted of reckless driving after going 100 mph or more to be required to use a limiter for two to six months, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) struck that part of the bill, leaving all use of the limiting technology up to the state courts. Hope expressed concern about the governor's amendment but will urge the General Assembly to accept it, as the legislature typically does when the bill's sponsor signals support. Drivers must pay for the speed limiters themselves. (As in D.C., indigent defendants are exempt from paying.) The limiters won't be used in Virginia on commercial vehicles. Attempting to evade the speed limiter by tampering with it or driving a different car is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/27/virginia-speed-limit-device/
Slippery slope (Score:1)
There isn't a single oppressive law passed with the intent of being used only in extreme cases that hasn't ended up being abused, aside from those newly passed which haven't gotten there yet.
Re:Slippery slope (Score:5, Insightful)
Driving at 100mph isn't something normal people do, not even by accident. It's very hard to see how this will be abused, and it's also hard to see how it's more oppressive than the alternative - jail time or at the very least a complete suspension of driving privileges. It's arguably, far from an oppressive law, far too liberal. Someone who thinks it's a good idea to drive at 100mph on a regular Interstate is probably reckless in other respects too.
Re: (Score:2)
> The street leading into my community is empty
Not when you are driving on it. But you make it clear they need to make the penalty a lot steeper if they want to make the rest of us safer from people like you. They ought to stop writing tickets and just impound cars that are going over the limit. Let people who speed walk home and have to figure out how to retrieve their vehicle from the pound. One purpose of legal penalties is to deter people and clearly speeding tickets are seen by some people as just another cost.
Re: (Score:2)
I would assume they already have revoking a driving license as an option for bad drivers. If not, I would question the point of licensing at all.
Compared to that, a speed limiter is a slap on the wrist. A slap might be warranted in some cases. But it's not going to stop reckless driving, which can certainly be done under 50 mph, or whatever the limit is. For repeat offenders, impounding the vehicle would be a better choice.
Re: (Score:2)
Every year cars slam into (now abandoned) house on the corner of my block because they ignore the speed signs and take the blind corner too fast on rainy days. Prior to the owner of the house abandoning it, a car entered into his loungeroom sideways injuring his 12yo daughter.
I couldnt give a fuck if weird libertarians think speed limits are oppressive. I DO give a fuck about a 12 year olds right not to get mowed down by psychos.
I'll still find a way to be reckless. (Score:2)
If I can't go 120 on the freeway, how about I just go 70 in a 55, or how about 60 in a 25, or 50 in a 10-15mph zone...
I guess the data for the oppressive tech is readily available in map products like Google / Apple / TomTom maps etc. All they have to do is have some hooks into the rev limiter and speed limiters.
My example is hyperbole, and there's probably more severe penalties for not sticking to the speed limit, but you think the lawmakers thought about this?
What about the true need for speed in an emerg
Re: (Score:2)
> I guess the data for the oppressive tech is readily available in map products like Google / Apple / TomTom maps etc. All they have to do is have some hooks into the rev limiter and speed limiters.
They need to measure g forces. The corners are the fun part.
> My example is hyperbole
Mine isn't. Driving a slow car fast is much more fun than driving a fast car slow.
This is bad (Score:2)
Bad, Bad, Bad
Speed is not the problem
Unsafe driving is a problem
Street racing is a problem
Drunk driving is a problem
Distracted driving is a problem
Reducing it to a single number that doesn't account for skill, weather, traffic, road condition, etc is lazy and silly
won’t be used ... on commercial vehicles. (Score:1)
Guess what % of drivers punished with this crime will suddenly have businesses with a need for a commercial vehicle? lol
Just another punishment for the poor.
Re: (Score:2)
0%?
"Attempting to evade the speed limiter by tampering with it or driving a different car is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail"
Going to suck if your car breaks down or you want to travel somewhere where you'd need a rental but maybe that's a good reason not to go at 100mph...