What Is Considered Reckless Driving in VA?

What is considered reckless driving in VA is set by one broad rule and a list of specific acts. The broad rule, Va. Code § 46.2-852, covers driving “recklessly or at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person” — whatever the speed limit says. The list names specific acts, the best known being driving 20 mph or more over the limit or above 85 mph. All of them are Class 1 misdemeanors.

The general rule: driving that endangers

Section 46.2-852 is the catch-all, and it is worth reading in full because it is short: “Irrespective of the maximum speeds permitted by law, any person who drives a vehicle on any highway recklessly or at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person shall be guilty of reckless driving.”

Three things fall out of that sentence.

The speed limit is not a safe harbour. “Irrespective of the maximum speeds permitted by law” means a driver can be charged for driving in a way that endangers people while staying under the posted limit — in fog, on ice, in heavy traffic, or through standing water.

No crash is required. The test is endangerment of life, limb or property, not damage to it. A near miss, or driving that created a real risk of one, is enough for the charge to be written.

It is an objective standard applied to what the officer saw. The section does not require proof that the driver intended anything. What the court weighs is how the vehicle was actually being driven, which in practice means the officer’s testimony about it, plus any dashcam, witness or crash evidence.

That is also why general-rule cases turn out so differently from speed cases. A speed charge rests on one recorded number; a § 46.2-852 charge rests on a description, and descriptions can be tested in court.

Reading the general rule closely

Four phrases in that single sentence do the work, and each one is broader than drivers expect.

• “Any person who drives a vehicle.” The section is about the act of driving a vehicle, not about a particular class of licence or a particular kind of car.
• “On any highway.” The general rule is written for highways. That is not a loophole for private property, because Article 7 separately names parking lots in § 46.2-864.
• “Recklessly or at a speed or in a manner.” Three alternatives, joined by “or”. Manner alone is enough, with no speed evidence at all.
• “Endanger the life, limb, or property of any person.” Property counts, and “any person” includes passengers in the driver’s own car. Nothing has to be damaged and nobody has to be hurt — the risk is the offense.

Those phrases are why § 46.2-852 is called the catch-all. It is the section an officer writes when the driving was bad but no specific listed act quite fits.

Reckless driving by speed

The most frequently charged version needs no bad driving at all. Under Va. Code § 46.2-862, a person is guilty of reckless driving who drives 20 mph or more above the applicable maximum speed limit, or over 85 mph regardless of the limit. Either trigger is enough on its own, and the 85 mph threshold applies on an interstate posted at 70 just as it does on a rural road.

Because the arithmetic decides the charge, the exact figures for each posted limit are worth checking against the summons — the speed thresholds page sets them out limit by limit, and what changed in Virginia’s reckless driving laws covers when the 85 mph line replaced the old 80 mph one.

The specific acts Virginia names as reckless driving

Article 7 of Chapter 8 of Title 46.2 lists the offenses by name. Any one of them is reckless driving in Virginia, and each carries the same penalty as the general rule.

Section	The Code’s own heading
§ 46.2-852	Reckless driving; general rule
§ 46.2-853	Driving vehicle which is not under control; faulty brakes
§ 46.2-854	Passing on or at the crest of a grade or on a curve
§ 46.2-855	Driving with driver’s view obstructed or control impaired
§ 46.2-856	Passing two vehicles abreast
§ 46.2-857	Driving two abreast in a single lane
§ 46.2-858	Passing at a railroad grade crossing
§ 46.2-859	Passing a stopped school bus; prima facie evidence
§ 46.2-860	Failing to give proper signals
§ 46.2-861	Driving too fast for highway and traffic conditions
§ 46.2-861.1	Drivers to yield right-of-way or reduce speed when approaching stationary vehicles displaying certain warning lights on highways; penalties
§ 46.2-862	Exceeding speed limit
§ 46.2-863	Failure to yield right-of-way
§ 46.2-864	Reckless driving on parking lots, etc.
§ 46.2-865	Racing or exhibition driving; definitions; penalties
§ 46.2-866	Racing or exhibition driving; aiders or abettors; penalty
§ 46.2-867	Racing; seizure of motor vehicle

The article also contains § 46.2-865.1 (injuring another or causing the death of another while engaging in a race or exhibition driving), § 46.2-867.1 (exhibition driving; impoundment of motor vehicle), § 46.2-868 (reckless driving; penalties), § 46.2-868.1 (aggressive driving; penalties) and § 46.2-869 (improper driving; penalty).

Two entries in that list surprise people. Section 46.2-864 is headed “Reckless driving on parking lots”, so the “on any highway” wording of the general rule does not describe the whole article. And § 46.2-863 covers failing to yield when entering a highway, which is why an ordinary-sounding failure to yield can arrive as a misdemeanor summons.

For a section-by-section walk through the statutes themselves, see reckless driving in the Va. Code.

What is not considered reckless driving

Conduct	What it actually is
Speeding less than 20 mph over the limit, at or below 85 mph	A traffic infraction under the speeding sections, prepayable, no criminal record
Driving 81–85 mph where the limit is 65	Still a speeding infraction, though it carries an extra fine
Conduct a court finds only slightly culpable	Improper driving under § 46.2-869 — an infraction, not a crime
Aggressive driving	A separate offense under § 46.2-868.1, not the same charge as reckless driving

The first row is the one that matters most in practice. Virginia draws its line at a number, and the number is 20 over or 85 mph. Nineteen over the limit is a ticket; 20 over is a criminal charge. Nothing about the driver’s record or attitude moves that line.

The line cuts both ways, which is what makes Virginia’s definition unusual. A careful driver keeping pace with traffic on an empty interstate is charged with a misdemeanor at 86 mph, while a driver weaving through traffic at 15 over is not — unless the officer charges the general rule or one of the specific acts instead. Speed and manner are separate routes to the same offense, and a summons can be written down either one.

What being charged actually means

Once conduct is considered reckless driving, the consequences do not depend on which section was charged, and they are the ones set out in the guide to reckless driving in Virginia. Va. Code § 46.2-868 makes every reckless driving conviction under the article a Class 1 misdemeanor, and Va. Code § 18.2-11 sets that at confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both. A mandatory minimum fine of $250 applies where the driver was also holding a handheld phone.

Beyond the courtroom, a conviction adds 6 DMV demerit points and stays on the Virginia driving record for 11 years — with one exception, failure to stop before entering a highway under § 46.2-863, which the DMV assesses at 4 points. The court may also suspend a Virginia license under Va. Code § 46.2-392 for not less than 10 days nor more than six months, and may grant a restricted permit for good cause. The full range of penalties covers what each of those means in practice.

Improper driving: the charge just below reckless

Virginia gives its courts a release valve. Under Va. Code § 46.2-869, where the degree of culpability is slight, the jury or the court trying the case without a jury may find the accused not guilty of reckless driving but guilty of improper driving; a prosecutor may also reduce a reckless driving charge to improper driving at any time before the court’s decision, and must notify the court. Improper driving is punishable as a traffic infraction with a fine of not more than $500.

It carries 3 demerit points and sits on the DMV record for three years, and it is not a crime. That is why so much of what happens in a Virginia reckless driving case is really an argument about culpability rather than about whether the driving happened at all.

So the honest answer to what is considered reckless driving in VA has two halves. The Code decides whether conduct falls inside the definition, and on speed that decision is arithmetic. What the court then does with it — reckless driving, improper driving, or nothing — turns on how serious the facts were, and that part is decided case by case. What a reckless driving charge involves from the stop to the sentence covers the rest. Anyone charged under the general rule, where the whole question is how the driving looked to the officer, should talk that through with a Virginia traffic attorney before the hearing.