Traffic Ticket Fines and Penalties in Idaho

In Idaho, tickets are considered civil infractions, and they come with built-in penalties that are mandated by the state. This includes both the ticket fines and the court cost. These are universal throughout the state, meaning that a failure to yield ticket in Coeur d'Alene would carry the same penalty as one from Ketchum.

Of course, there are certain violations that include additional penalties – namely, driving under the influence. DUIs include some pretty hefty surcharges that are mandatory. And they get even heftier for repeat offenders:

• 1st Conviction: up to $1,000 fine
• 2nd Conviction (within 10 years): up to $2,000 fine
• 3rd Conviction (within 10 years): up to $5,000 fine

In Idaho, you cannot remove points form a citation with a defensive driving course, but you can take the course for a "general point reduction." The only major difference is: You can plead guilty to a citation, incur the points, and then decide months later to take the defensive driving course to remove the points. These classes can cost you anywhere between $18 and $60, depending on when and where you take them.

Taking the defensive driving course is generally a good idea. One or two points on your record isn't such a big deal, but if you accrue too mane in a certain amount of time, you could face license suspension, revocation, or even cancellation.

What's the difference, you ask? Well, with an Idaho suspended drivers license, you lose the privilege of driving for a period of time. Most of the time you have to meet certain requirements before you can drive again. With revocation, you are suspended for a longer period, and you face stricter requirements before regaining the ability to drive. Cancellation, of course, is the obvious one. It means you ought to get yourself a bus pass.

Some of the violations that could result in suspensions and the like are: Failure to comply with Idaho DUI laws, accruing too many Idaho traffic violations, neglecting your Idaho speeding ticket fines, fleeing a police officer, committing a felony with a motor vehicle, and many many more.

Idaho Traffic Ticket fines and Penalties for Under 21

If you're younger than 21, and you run afoul of Idaho's DUI laws, you could wind up facing additional penalties.

• First conviction: Fine of up to $1,000 and license suspension for up to a year
• Second conviction (within 10 years): Fine of up to $2,000 up to 30 days in jail.
• Third conviction (within 10 years): Fine of up to $2,000, jail sentence of between 10 days to 6 months, mandatory 1 year suspension. Also must use interlock ignition device upon reinstatement. A third violation is considered a felony.

Idaho Traffic Ticket fines and Penalties for Commercial Drivers

If you drive trucks for a living, you are also held to a more stringent standard. If you get a traffic ticket of any kind, you must notify your employer within 30 days. It doesn't matter if you were on the job, or you were just getting diapers in your wife's minivan. If you are a commercial driver, you cannot drive with a blood alcohol count of 0.08% or higher in any vehicle, but when you're working, the limit is a BAC of 0.04%. Failure to do so will result in a license cancellation for 1 year. You will also lose your CDL for 1 year if you refuse to submit to a sobriety test, or flee the scene of an accident, or use your work vehicle to commit a felony, or drive with a suspended, revoked, or cancelled CDL, or cause a fatality through negligent driving. These are all considered "Major Offenses."

There are also a couple ways to get your commercial driver's license straight-up disqualified. If you:

• violate a driver or vehicle out-of-service order while transporting non-hazardous materials
• violate a driver or vehicle out-of-service order while transporting hazardous materials that are required to be placarded
• violate a driver or vehicle out-of-service order while driving a vehicle that is designed to transport 16 or more passengers

...your CDL will be disqualified from anywhere from 180 days to one year.

As always, the best way to avoid all Idaho traffic ticket fines and penalties is to make yourself the safest driver possible.