Drivers beware: When crossing state lines, you may unknowingly face somepretty strict traffic laws.
Driving too fast in Virginia has been known toland people in jail. Louisiana isimplementing new finesfor touching cell phones while driving. And in Utah, judges are now allowed toban you from buying alcoholif you get caught driving while extremely drunk.
Peter Savolainen, the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University, said there isn't national data about whether states with stricter rules have safer drivers. But more enforcement is probably good for the roads overall, he said.
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"If we had states that had more rigorous enforcement, I'm confident we'd have more effectiveness there and lower (speeding) or lower alcohol consumption or lower cell phone use, or whatever the case may be," he said.
Here's what to know about some of the strictest driving rules in the United States.
This state is notably strict on speeding
States have the ability to set their own speed limits, after a nationwide limit of 55 mph was reversed in the 1990s.
Enforcement of speeding varies by state. In Virginia, speeding is a traffic infraction, but in some extreme cases, it is a criminal offense that can land you in jail. Going 20 mph over the speed limit, or 85 mph regardless of the limit, are both reckless driving misdemeanor criminal offenses.
What's the speed limit?States with the fastest and slowest speeds
Utah is the strictest state for drunk driving
Utah has the most strict limit for blood alcohol content of any U.S. state. All other states set the legal limit at 0.08% of blood alcohol concentration (BAC). In 2018,Utah became the first state to lower that to 0.05%, a level the Cleveland Clinicsayscan cause you to "feel uninhibited and have lowered alertness and impaired judgment."
Starting in 2026, Utah judges may impose a new sentence for drivers convicted of extreme drunk driving with a level of 0.16 or higher – more than three times the limit. So-called "interdicted" drivers could be banned from purchasing alcohol for a time and receive a designation on their ID cards.
Arizona is known to be a particularly tough statewhen it comes to its enforcement for driving under the influence. Even if under the legal limit of 0.08%, a driver could face charges if a police officer believes they are "impaired to the slightest degree," through field sobriety tests or observations.
States crack down on texting while driving
In some states, driving while using a cell phone is considered a primary offense, meaning police can pull you over just for that, Savolainen said. In other states, it's a secondary offense, and police need another reason to pull you over first.
Nearly three dozen states and Washington, DC, ban handheld cell phone use while driving, and the majority consider it a primary offense, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
Louisiana last year implemented a new hands-free law banning the use of cell phones except when their function is entirely hands-off. As of Jan. 1, a grace period is up and fines will start applying to violators. It's a primary offense in a school zone, where drivers can be fined $250, and a secondary offense in most other places, where fines are $100.
In Oregon, a first offense can incur a fine of up to $1,000, which doubles if a driver has three or more offenses within 10 years.
An especially severe punishment for texting and driving can be found in Alaska. Though the state doesn't ban just holding a phone, it has hefty penalties for texting while driving: up to $10,000 and up to one year in prison as a class A misdemeanor. Those penalties increase if any injuries or deaths are caused by a crash due to texting and driving.
More:Is it legal to drive with earbuds or headphones?
Buckle up, and make sure your passengers have seat belts, too
Like driving while distracted, not wearing a seat belt can be treated as either a primary or secondary offense depending on the state, but laws vary widely. Some laws are specific to front-seat occupants; others differentiate between children and adults.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, 35 states, DC and four territories have primary laws for front-seat occupants. In 42 states, DC and two territories, laws also enforce rear seat belt use.
Fines for drivers who violate seat belt laws in most states range from $10 to $200. The highest fines for first offenses, according to atrackerfrom the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, can be found in Oregon ($115), Washington ($124) and Texas ($200).
It can be confusing to understand the specific laws in each state, but the very safest bet is to have everyone in your car wearing a seat belt while driving.
"Of the 23,959 passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2023, 10,484 (44%) were unrestrained at the time of the crash," according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, citing data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
There's evidence the rules work: States with primary enforcement laws for seat belt use see higher seat belt use, Savolainen said.
"If you plot fatalities from the early 1980s through the early 2000s, what you see is that belt use consistently goes up and fatalities consistently go down," he added.
States are turning to automated enforcement for some traffic rules
Drivers who speed or commit other traffic infractions are getting more difficult to crack down on with law enforcement agencies strapped for resources and overall conducting less traffic enforcement, Savolainen said.
To help with that issue, some states have turned instead to automated enforcement methods like speeding cameras and red-light cameras.According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, more than 300 communities across the United States use cameras to monitor speeding.
Twenty-six states and DC use speed cameras.See a full list here.Fines can range from a nominal fee to a hefty chunk of change. Maryland's recently enacted fine structure for those caught speeding on a camera ranges from $40 to $425 depending on how much over the speed limit a driver was going.
Cameras for speeding or running red lights are effective because if drivers are aware they're subject to fines, research shows that awareness can reduce crashes, Savolainen said.
"I know when I drive through Chicago, they have a lot of red-light cameras," he said. "And so consequently, I'm probably a little more sensitive to going through just as it's about to turn red in those circumstances."
These states have some less-strict rules of the road
Texas allows drivers to go the fastest in the country, with up to 85 mph allowed on a segment of Texas State Highway 130, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
New Hampshire is the only state with no law requiring seat belts for adults, but it does have a seat belt law for those under 18. There are14 stateswith mandatory seat belt laws for adult front-seat occupants, but they are secondary enforcement laws, meaning officers can't pull someone over just for that.
Though Alaska has one of the harshest penalties for texting and driving, it doesn't enact a general handheld device ban the way 33 states do.
Contributing: Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY; Elena Santa Cruz and Ray Stern, the Arizona Republic
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:These are some of America's strictest traffic laws
