Virginia will become the first state in the nation to allow judges to order anti-speeding devices to be installed in the cars of the worst speeders, a substantial victory for transportation advocates and one that they hope can be replicated elsewhere.
The new rule, approved by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin late last month and expected to go into effect in July 2026, will enable judges to force drivers convicted of going over 100 miles per hour to install a “speed governor” in their vehicles.
Advocates said the measure would not only prevent deadly crashes and minimize reckless driving, but also serve as a model for future legislation.
“The effort is so common sense that it is receiving bi-partisan support across the country,” said Amy Cohen, founder of Families for Safe Streets.
Previously in the Old Dominion, judges could only suspend a leadfoot's license, fine them or jail them. Now judges will have the option of forcibly slowing down the vehicles of marauding motorists, making them purchase a GPS-guided device, known as intelligent speed assistance, that would prevent them from cruising up to no more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Such a device allows the judicial system to crack down on lawbreakers without depriving them of the ability to get to work or medical appointments, which has long provided cover for lawmakers who oppose punishment for scofflaw drivers.
Virginia delegate Patrick Hope said that logjam broke because judges needed another option to prevent irresponsible drivers from endangering people’s lives beyond revoking their license or sending them to jail. In a car-dependent country such as ours, losing access to a vehicle is seen as such a severe punishment that 75 percent of motorists whose license had been suspended continued to drive anyway, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated.
“The defendant pays a few hundred dollars for the device, but if people want their privileges to drive an automobile they’ll pay it,” Hope told Streetsblog. “Driving is a privilege, not a right. As the technology gets more socially accepted, there’s an opportunity for it to be used more frequently.”
The consequences of doing nothing are deadly. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, for instance, there were 13,474 injuries and 449 deaths that resulted from 25,274 crashes in 2023, according to state Department of Motor Vehicle records and Northern Virginia Magazine’s report.
New York State officials once estimated that speeding was a significant factor in 30 percent of traffic fatalities. In New York City between 2021 and 2023, more than 200 people were killed in crashes involving a speeding driver. And the worst of the worst — the 1.5 percent of motorists who received the most automated speeding tickets — were involved in 21 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes in 2022, one report found.
The danger of recidivism was cast into harsh relief on Saturday in Brooklyn when a speeding driver — who had a suspended license as well as 99 tickets on her record since August of 2023 — killed a 34-year-old mother and 5 and 8 year-old daughters, and seriously injured her 4-year-old son.
Had New York State's version of Virginia's law — a bill introduced in 2023 — passed, driver Miriam Yarimi could never have piloted her Audi at such a high speed to slam through another car and devastate an entire family.
“The top line is that speed kills,” said Hope. “The faster you’re going, the more likely someone will be hurt really bad or killed. And the point behind this bill is to curb reckless driving or eliminate the threat.”
Virginia won’t likely be the last state with a bill like this. State lawmakers in New York, Washington State, Maryland, Georgia, Arizona, and California, have introduced similar legislation (Washington D.C. approved the use of the regulation devices in February 2024).
Unlike Virginia, the Empire State proposal would mandate the devices if drivers accumulated six or more speed- or red-light camera tickets within a year, or accumulate 11 points on their license within 18 months – the equivalent of four tickets traveling one to 10 miles over the speed limit or one ticket for flying 41 or more miles per hour over the limit.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn, believes he will have an easier time convincing his colleagues to advance his bill this year now that Virginia has already approved a similar measure.
“It shows that this is possible. I think it caught people’s attention and we have an example to point to, as we go about our advocacy,” he said. “When we see other jurisdictions take our policy solutions into our own hands it becomes a more mainstream idea. You don’t have that initial hesitancy.”
Hope is already thinking of expanding his speed limiter bill so the devices can be optionally added to vehicles with teenage drivers after parents approached him. He believes more states will follow suit.
“It’s amazing how these bills can hop from state to state and build momentum and snowball. First it’s one state and then three or four and next hear its’ a dozen and then two dozen,” he said. “The fact that the Republican signed it means that it’s bipartisan. It’s non-partisan. Everyone wanted to keep our streets safer.”
