State Offers Speed-Limiters as Alternative to Suspension

Welcome once again to Leato's Law. Here's Steve Leato. — Lately, there have been a bunch of headlines about states cracking down on speeders using some kind of speed limiting device. And a lot of people have been upset by that because a lot of the headlines would lead you to believe that like for instance, all cars are going to have these or something. Uh but as of right now, that's not what they're talking about. In fact, John sent me a note since Steve check out the story out of Virginia. Virginia's speed limiting legislation to take effect July 1st, but this only applies to people who've had trouble legally with speeding and what they're going to do about that particular person. So, Ashley wrote this for WAVY. New legislation going to effect this summer could change the way reckless speeders are penalized. The law was signed by the former governor when that was appropriate and it would allow a speed limiting device to be placed on a driver's car. Virginia State Police say they support anything that sees drivers slowing down. According to data, Virginia State Police issued more than 8,500 citations for speeding and reckless driving last year across Division 5. That includes Greenville to the west, Hampton Roads, Matthews County, and the Eastern Shore. That is someone who is cited for driving more than 20 mph above the speed limit or driving above 80 mph. A spokesperson for the state police said. Now, the new intelligent speed assistance program will apply to drivers speeding above 100 miles per hour. A convicted driver will have the option of enrolling in the program instead of having their license suspended. So, you get busted for doing over a hundred. Okay, you're convicted. In the old days, it just meant your license got suspended. You were done. Now, they're saying instead of the suspension being automatic, you'll have the option of choosing to have this option on your car that will keep you from speeding like that, but they'll let you keep driving. So, this is actually better than before because before they would simply say, "No, your license is suspended. " So, a lot of people are looking at this wrong. Once the device is installed on the car, the driver won't be allowed to drive another vehicle while they're in the program. They got to drive their own car. Tampering with the device or trying to get around it would be a misdemeanor. And the simple message, according to state police, is just don't speed. People always say, "Hey, I need to get to a location fast. You've been sitting at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel for a while or the Monitor Mirramac and you want to get someplace, but speed equals less control of your vehicle notes and less stopping distance in case another driver does something unexpectedly in front of you. And I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Virginia the state that cracks down really hard on speeding already? meaning that I know somebody who's a writer for a very well-known publication was driving across Virginia, I believe, in a car that he was driving for a story and I think he wound up in jail for excessive speed. So, your choices are jail, suspended license, or a speed limiting device. I would take the speed limiting device, but I don't know if that's the exact trade-off there. So, also speed increases the likelihood that when you hit something, all that machinery meant to protect you can't do its job. Cars are built fairly sturdy these days, but if you're hitting something at a high rate of speed, if you're hitting a tree, a guardrail, another vehicle, physics works regardless. Yeah, physics does what physics does. In 2024, there were more than 25,000 speed related crashes and 410 speed related fatalities in the Commonwealth. The state police spokesperson said they're in favor of anything that gets people to slow down. Much rather that folks take a little more time and get to your destination late rather than not at all or cause someone else to not get to their destination at all. He said Virginia will be the first state to use this program. DC has similar legislation and New York City is using speed limiting technology on its municipal fleet. The law takes effect in Virginia July 1st. So again, if they simply said, "Hey, we're requiring everyone to put these in their cars. We think people are speeding. " Uh yeah, I'd be against that. But when they say, "We're going to take your license. Your license is suspended. cannot drive for a year or if you want to, we'll let you drive your own car, but it's got to have the speed limiting device on it, which by the way, sometimes you refer to as a governor, but a lot of people when they hear the word governor will think, "Oh, that's the guy who signed the bill or the exgovernor, but something that

limits the speed on your vehicle. " And again, it's an option that they're offering to people who otherwise couldn't drive at all. And a lot of people when they hear about alternative sentencing get upset and you'll hear these stories about where a judge said to somebody um you can go to jail for 30 days or you can do this and they'll name something. And I did the story I think about a year ago where a judge ordered shoplifterss to wash cars in the parking lot of the store they were stealing from. and somebody appealed that and and I believe it wasn't actually an appeal in the sense that it was a higher court, but I believe that somebody complained and somebody in the court system said that's inappropriate. And so the judge said, "Oh, okay. I'll just sentence them all to jail then. " And to me, if a court says to you, "You have an option. Normally, you'd get 30 days in jail, but you have this, let's make a deal behind door number two, and it could be washing cars in the parking lot. I've seen somebody standing outside holding up a sign. I' I've seen that in the news before where the sign said something like, you know, I stole from this establishment or something. Uh or something, and people go, "That's that's so unfair. That's so Well, usually it's offered as an option. If you want to, you can go spend 30 days in jail. Or you can spend some time washing cars in a parking lot. And will that be embarrassing? Yes. But you don't have to do it. You can go to jail for 30 days. Which would you rather do? And so the speed limiters here are being offered as an option. They would allow some people to drive. And ironically, they don't limit your speed so badly that you're going to be crawling down the shoulder at 3 m hour. They're basically just saying you can drive your car like everybody else. Don't do this crazy speeding stuff because they're talking about how many people they bust for doing more than 80 or more than a hundred. And I mean almost every time I take a trip where I'm on the freeway, okay? Some days I just putter around town, but occasionally I'm on the freeway. And I remember, I'm trying to remember what concert it was, but I went to a concert downtown Detroit in November. It was Blue October. I went and saw the band Blue October at the Fillmore. And I did a video about that, which I'll put a link that video in the description below here because I had a good time at that concert. The video is on my backup channel. I've got a second channel. And coming back from that show was probably around midnight. And I remember that traffic was out there. We you know there were there were several vehicles in the road. It was not like desolate, okay, someplace east of Omaha. It was literally, you know, there was traffic out there. And a couple cars coming from downtown Detroit heading north came flying by easily over 100 miles an hour. And the section I'm talking about of the road is four lanes each way. Four lanes. And so the cars are doing this weaving in and out of traffic. And I don't know if the one car is chasing the other car. But I remember, you know, when you see somebody coming up behind you like that and your first thought is, should I get over? Because my concern is if I decide to get over, this person might pull a wild lane change and rear end me. So instead, I'll hold my lane and let them go by on one side or the other. But every now and then, you hear about these crazy crashes where somebody was doing 100 miles an hour and ran their car into, you know, a bridge support and there ain't nothing left of anything. You know, I mean, the bridge is still there. Not much left of the car or the contents of the car, including the contents that were driving the car. So, uh, have I ever driven above the speed limit in my life? I believe I have. Have I ever done, you know, hundreds of miles an hour in a car? Yes. On a public roadway, probably not. However, if I got busted for super speeding and I and I was actually guilty of it, uh I I would take my medicine. I would I'd go, "Okay, I did it. I deserve it. " Um but so far so good. So again, this is in Virginia and there are other states considering this type of option. And again, if it's offered as an alternative to just losing your license, I think it's a great idea. And by the way, in case you're curious, yes, this will cost you money

because if this happens to you and there's a device be put on your car, you're going have to pay to put it there and it's probably something you have to rent and at the end of the rental, you got to turn it back in. And it's the same thing with the uh devices, the interlocks they put on cars for drunk drivers. And again, they'll say you cannot drive. However, if you're willing to let us put the interlock on your car, it makes you blow to make sure you don't have alcohol in your system before you can start the car. We'll let you do that. And it's my understanding an expensive device because they got to install it. You got it, then you got to uninstall it. However, if it's that or not driving, it's just an option. It's an option. So, there you go. John, thanks for sending that. Ashley Knight wrote for WAV Y Virginia's speed limiting legislation to take effect July 1st. Questions or comments, put them below. Otherwise, talk to you later. Bye-bye. — Thank you for watching Leato's Law. I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability.