SB 451 Virginia Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Duty of care and liability of landowner; injury or death of person operating off-road motorcycle.

Summary

Duty of care and liability of landowner; injury or death of person operating off-road motorcycle. Provides that a landowner, defined in the bill, owes no duty of care to another person (i) who operates an off-road motorcycle, defined in the bill, on such landowner's land or (ii) to whom the landowner has provided an off-road motorcycle for use on such landowner's land, regardless of whether such landowner has given such person permission or has received a fee from such other person to use the land or off-road motorcycle for such purpose. The bill immunizes the landowner from civil liability for any injury or death arising from the operation of an off-road motorcycle on the landowner's land except in cases of gross negligence or willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, provision of an off-road motorcycle that such landowner knew was unsafe to the extent that operation of such off-road motorcycle would likely result in an injury, or other act or omission resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Feb 11, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Courts of Justice Substitute · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended from its original introduction to a substitute version proposed by the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice. The substantive policy change involves modifying the liability protections for landowners when off-road motorcycles are operated on their property. The original version broadly exempted landowners from liability, while the substitute version adds specific conditions that must be met for the exemption to apply, including that the operator must understand, appreciate, and voluntarily accept the inherent risks of the activity.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains the same in terms of which landowners and activities are covered, but the conditions under which landowners are protected from liability have been modified to be more specific about operator awareness and acceptance of risks.

REQUIREMENT

Added new requirements in subsection B stating that the landowner's liability exemption only applies when the off-road motorcycle operator understands the inherent risks, fully appreciates the nature and extent of those risks, and voluntarily accepts such risks, including any known dangerous conditions on the land.

Changed the language regarding equipment failure from 'operator error' to 'misuse' in subsection B, which may have different legal implications regarding what constitutes improper use of the motorcycle.

Simplified subsection C from listing three specific things that permission does not do to a single statement that the landowner shall not become an insurer of the person's safety.

TECHNICAL

The document format changed from an introduced bill to a substitute amendment format, including line numbers and committee markup, but these are formatting changes rather than substantive policy changes.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 11, 2026

Committee

Failed to report from Courts of Justice with substitute (4-Y 7-N 4-A)

upper

Feb 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

Senate committee offered

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Committee

Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors