AAA: $1,000 Speeding Tickets a Possibility in DC

If caught red-handed by a speed camera or pulled over by a police officer, the speediest drivers in Washington, D.C. would face what auto club AAA is calling “a draconian 233 percent increase” in speeding ticket fines under a proposed rule-making slated to be published Friday by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

If adopted, the fine for driving 26 miles per hour over the posted speed limit would go from $300 currently to $1,000, according to AAA.

Since traffic ticket fines double the initial fine in the District if left unpaid for 30 days, the fine would soar, however, to $2,000, a sum many drivers could not pay out of their pocketbooks or their checking accounts in a timely manner and turn the District into a veritable “debtor’s prison,” warns AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The District seeks to increase fines through regulatory changes, according to a copy of the proposed regulations obtained by AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Traffic violations are the most frequent reasons for arrests in the District each year and that number could increase because drivers who cannot pay the traffic ticket fines would be tempted to drive on suspended licenses and vehicle registrations to get to work, increasing the risk of more hit and run crashes in the city, according to the auto club.

Traffic ticket fines would also increase for citations issued to motorists who fail to clear the scene of a crash or fail to provide clearance for an emergency vehicle, and drivers who strike and injure a bicyclist in the city, according to news accounts.

Other traffic tickets fines would also escalate dramatically in the District for infractions such as ignoring traffic signals, disobeying right-turn-on red prohibitions, and parking in a bike lane, under the regulatory provisions tucked away in B-21-0383, the Vision Zero Act of 2015.

“The District is poised to enact draconian and arbitrary traffic fines by administrative law under the dubious banner of traffic safety. But motorists and safety advocates will see through the ruse in the name of public safety,” cautioned John B., Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs, in a news release issued Thursday.

In all, AAA says fines would increase for 20 traffic infractions, and fines for eight new violations would be added, including speeding in a safe zone ($100), failure to yield to a bus entering a traffic lane ($500) and failure to yield to first responders in route to the scene of a crash ($500). Others include:

• The fine for striking a bicyclist would be $500 and the citation for failure to yield to a pedestrian while turning right on red doubles from $250 to $500.
• Also new, drivers would be ticketed $500 for “failure to clear travel lanes when vehicles in a crash are not immobilized and no injury occurs.”
• Private vehicle would be fined $200 for stopping, standing or parking in a bike lane. Commercial vehicles will be fined $300 for the same offense.

The proposed Vision Zero Regulatory changes are slated to be published in the DC Register (DCR) as early as Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, however, the public comment period will only be open for 30 days, AAA notes.