Virginia’s Unconstitutional Traffic Fines

Virginia has instituted a new set of confiscatory traffic fines. For a change, they have admitted these fines are taxes, even writing it into the law with "The purpose of the civil remedial fees imposed in this section is to generate revenue." They didn’t have to tell us that when they imposed fines of up to $3000 immediately and annual taxes on the points connected to the fine of up to $700 a year. That’s $700 for every year the points stay in the driver’s record. Some points are stuck to your record for as long as 11 years.

Leave it to lawyers to argue the constitutionality of taxing this way. Hope the Legislature and State Bar seriously question the ethics of a traffic court lawyer introducing this bill.

Be sure your traffic lawyer knows there is a very good chance this law, as it applies to speeding, violates state responsibility to provide for the welfare of its citizens. That is, it is probably unconstitutional.

“What,” you ask. “It reduces speeding and everybody knows speed kills.”

Well, in a sense speed kills. Hitting a tree at 100 mph is more likely to kill you than the same accident at 50 mph.

Realistically, too much speed kills. Too little speed causes accidents. The clearest way to see that is with the International Road Traffic and Accident database (IRTAD). Compare the land of unlimited speed, Germany, with the USA.

2006 Numbers	Total-deaths	Injury-accidents-per-100,000-population	Deaths-per-billion-km
Germany	6.5	408	7.8
USA	14.7	647*	9.4

*2004 figure. 2006 not available.

The federal government, and one would hope people who make their living defending traffic cases, have been aware of this effect since a 1992 report titled Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits, DOT Report No. FHWA-RD-92-084

Virginia may argue this is a tax law, not a speed limit law. How they might do that eludes me since doing so indicates lying. No lawyer or legislature can deny with any credibility knowledge of the words de facto.

There is no intelligent argument that the fines imposed by this law are not a de facto speed law and, therefore, an unconstitutional endangerment to the citizens.