Transportation (Traffic Safety)

Motor vehicles; use of safety belt systems; certain emergency medical services personnel. Exempts from the requirements for the use of safety belt systems emergency medical services personnel while in the patient compartment of an emergency medical services vehicle providing necessary care, as defined in the bill, to a patient. The bill also provides that, for seats that are subject to such requirements for the use of safety belt systems, such personnel shall use safety belt systems while the vehicle is in motion and such personnel is not providing necessary care to a patient.

Driver education; dangers of reckless driving, including driving at excessive speeds. Requires the driver education program established by the Board of Education to emphasize the dangers of reckless driving, including driving at excessive speeds, among other topics. The bill requires the Department of Education, no later than the start of the 2026-2027 school year, to review and update the Curriculum and Administrative Guide for Driver Education in Virginia and any other instructional resources for the Driver Education Standards of Learning to place greater emphasis on the dangers of reckless driving, including driving at excessive speeds, in the behind-the-wheel training component, the classroom training component, and the parent/student component by including updated interviews with individuals who have lost family members due to speeding by teen drivers and encouraging partnerships with local police departments or sheriff's offices to provide students with real world examples of the dangers of driving at excessive speeds.

Driver improvement clinics; motorcycle driver improvement clinics; Motorcycle Driver Improvement Clinic Fund; created. Creates motorcycle driver improvement clinics, defined in the bill, as a subset of existing driver improvement clinics and provides requirements and parameters for the instruction and administration of the motorcycle driver improvement clinics. The bill authorizes courts to direct defendants who have committed violations while operating a motorcycle to attend a motorcycle driver improvement clinic and satisfy the requirements thereof. The bill also creates the Motorcycle Driver Improvement Clinic Fund for the operation and administration of motorcycle driver improvement clinics. The bill specifies that priority be given to the creation of motorcycle driver improvement clinics that operate as computer-based clinics.

Holding a handheld personal communications device while driving; driver improvement clinic. Clarifies that a court may order, for a first violation of texting and driving, the satisfactory completion of a driver improvement clinic in lieu of a conviction.

Helmets; local authority. Permits localities to adopt ordinances requiring children 14 years of age or younger to wear protective helmets whenever riding or being carried on a motorized skateboard or scooter or a nonmotorized scooter. Current law authorizes localities to adopt such ordinances for riders of bicycles, electric personal assistive mobility devices, toy vehicles, and electric power-assisted bicycles.

Regulation of traffic; bicycles and certain other devices; bicycle signals. Requires a person operating a bicycle or other device lawfully permitted in a bicycle lane or on a shared-use path in or approaching an intersection with a bicycle signal to obey such bicycle signal. The bill also sets requirements for signals that are displayed by bicycle signals and requirements for situations in which traffic lights, including bicycle signals, are out of service. The bill provides that a violation constitutes a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of no more than $350.

Photo speed monitoring devices; reduced-speed segments. Authorizes a locality without its own law-enforcement agency to, by ordinance, place and operate a photo speed monitoring device at a reduced-speed segment, defined in the bill, located within the locality for the purpose of recording violations resulting from the operation of a vehicle in excess of the speed limit. The bill requires any such locality to, by ordinance, authorize officers of the law-enforcement agency with jurisdiction within such locality or retired sworn law-enforcement officers employed by the locality to issue the summons and to swear to or affirm the certificate stating that the information produced by such photo speed monitoring device shows evidence of a vehicle speed violation. The bill provides the same requirements for such devices, information collected from such devices, and any enforcement actions resulting from information collected from such devices as current law applies to the use of such devices in school crossing zones, highway work zones, and high-risk intersection segments.

Photo speed monitoring devices; placement and operation. Authorizes the governing body of any locality to provide by ordinance for the placement and operation of a photo speed monitoring device by a law-enforcement agency in a safety red zone, defined in the bill, for the purpose of recording vehicle speed violations in such safety red zone. The bill directs the Supreme Court of Virginia to develop a summons for vehicle speed violations captured by photo speed monitoring devices and requires summonses issued for such vehicle speed violations to be such summons. The bill makes various changes to the requirements for the use of photo speed monitoring devices, including the use of funds from collected civil penalties, signage, data retention and storage, photo speed monitoring device calibration, making certain information available to the public, requirements for private vendors, and reporting. The bill establishes civil penalties for violations of requirements and provides that for any summons issued, failure to comply with the requirements for the operation of photo speed monitoring devices renders such summons invalid.The bill also limits the use of photo speed monitoring devices in highway work zones to when workers are present, as defined in the bill, and provides that a certificate sworn to or affirmed by a law-enforcement officer or a retired sworn law-enforcement officer is not prima facie evidence of the facts contained therein for a photo speed monitoring device placed in a highway work zone unless the operator of the photo speed monitoring device provides a sworn certification verifying that workers were present at the time of the vehicle speed violation.The bill directs the Commissioner of Highways to develop criteria for designating a highway segment as a high-risk pedestrian corridor for purposes of identifying safety red zones.The bill contains delayed effective dates for certain provisions.

Bicycle riders; traffic control device exceptions; liability. Authorizes a bicycle rider to proceed through an intersection controlled by a stop sign, "Yield Right-of-Way" sign, or red light if such rider (i) is at least 16 years of age or is accompanied by a person who is at least 16 years of age who is also riding a bicycle and who precedes him through such intersection with no more than 10 feet of distance separating the bicycles and (ii) yields the right-of-way to the driver of any vehicle lawfully within such intersection or approaching or entering such intersection from another direction. The bill provides that proceeding through such an intersection without yielding as required by the bill constitutes negligence per se if such action is the proximate cause of a collision or vehicular accident.

Green warning lights, snow plows and vehicles equipped with truck-mounted attenuators. Authorizes snow plows used for clearing or removing snow on or along public highways and vehicles equipped with a truck-mounted attenuator that are used in constructing, maintaining, and repairing highways or utilities on or along public highways to be equipped with and use either (i) flashing, blinking, or alternating amber warning lights of types approved by the Superintendent of State Police or (ii) alternating amber and green warning lights of a type approved by the Superintendent of State Police. The bill requires that warning lights be lit only when performing the functions that qualify them to be equipped with such lights and that if a vehicle is equipped with multiple warning lights that are alternating amber and green warning lights, such lights shall be used synchronously with each other.