For many of us, driving during the pandemic lockdown has meant less traffic on the road. But unfortunately, many are using the empty roads as their personal speedway. Within a single week in July, the Toronto police ticketed more than 3,000 drivers for traffic-law violations, the majority of them for speeding!
Cost of Speeding Tickets
Speeding comes with a price and costs you money. The first thing that comes to mind is the fines imposed by the authorities. Let’s use the city of Toronto as example and see how the set fines break down:
- Speeding over 1-19 km/h => a fine of $5 per km
- Speeding over 20-29 km/h => a fine of $7.50 per km
- Speeding over 30-49 km/h => a fine of $12 per km
- Speeding over 50 km/h => an automatic court summons for the vehicle owner
As an example, speeding over 49 km/h could result in a fine of up to $718, including a set fine of $588, a victim surcharge of $125 and $5 in court costs.
For stunt driving in Ontario, the convicted could be fined up to $10,000, and end up with six months in jail and a 2-year license suspension. Before we even get into the speeding ticket insurance increase, it already doesn’t seem worth to have leadfoot.
Speeding Ticket Insurance Rate Increase
Other than immediate fines or suspension, these drivers also face major increases to their car insurance as a consequence of their actions. That makes sense since insurance companies calculate premiums based on the risk it takes to insure the driver and their vehicle.
So of course, bad driving habits such as speeding tickets result in higher costs to insure that driver. Other than safety, it’s one of the main reasons to drive carefully: keeping your insurance premium low.
Different insurance companies have their own calculations on how they rate speeding offences. But let’s take a look at how speeding tickets can increase your auto insurance premiums.
For auto insurance rates, multiple factors come into play, such as gender, age, vehicle model, usage, and home location, etc. But on average:
- 1 minor traffic ticket could lead to a 15% increase in your auto insurance premium
- 2 minor tickets could be a 30% increase
- 1 major offense such as stunt driving could result in a 40% increase
- Got 2 majors tickets? You could be looking at an insurance increase of 75%
Aftermath Costs of Speeding Tickets
Having speeding tickets will not only increase your car insurance premium for the first year. Did you know that traffic tickets remain on your driving record for three years? Some companies look at your driving record from the past six years.
This means you can expect to pay a higher price for your car insurance for many years after, even if you keep a clean record after the speeding ticket. You would also lose the conviction-free discounts that you previously enjoyed for years.
Becoming a High Risk Driver
If you have multiple major traffic tickets or even criminal tickets on your record, you could be labeled as a high-risk driver by insurance companies. Not only will you see a speeding ticket insurance increase, but high-risk drivers may not be able to get insurance from the regular market. This means you have very limited choices, need to pay higher premiums, and may need to put down payments for your policy.
If you want to know more about how speeding tickets affect insurance, contact us today. We can provide you with auto insurance options that are available to you. You can also use our online quoter to get a quick estimate of how speeding tickets affect your premiums. And remember: drive safely.
