How Long Does Reckless Driving Stay on Your Record?
Understand how reckless driving impacts your record over time, including what influences its duration and options for mitigation.
A reckless driving charge is more serious than a standard traffic ticket and can carry consequences for driving privileges, insurance rates, and potentially employment. Drivers may not realize how long such an offense can remain on their official records.
Duration on Driving Records
A reckless driving conviction becomes part of a driver’s official history, maintained by the state’s motor vehicle agency. How long this conviction stays visible varies significantly based on state laws and policies. Some states might keep the conviction on a record for three to seven years.
In other jurisdictions, particularly those treating the offense more severely, it could remain for ten years or longer. For serious cases or repeat offenders, a reckless driving conviction might stay on a driving record permanently. These periods are set by state law or agency regulations. The National Driver Register also tracks drivers whose licenses have been suspended or revoked, pointing states to the full record location, with retention guided by state rules.1National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Driver Register: Frequently Asked Questions
Factors Affecting How Long It Stays
Several elements determine the duration a reckless driving conviction appears on a driving record.
Type of Violation
The specifics of the reckless act can influence the retention period. While reckless driving often involves a disregard for safety, actions like excessive speed might be treated differently than erratic lane changes. Some states recognize more severe categories, like “aggravated reckless driving,” especially if the act causes injury or death. These aggravated offenses typically remain on records for significantly longer periods, sometimes permanently.
Prior Offenses
A driver’s history impacts how long a new reckless driving offense stays on the record. States often have stricter rules for repeat or “habitual” offenders. If a driver has prior serious violations, like DUI or previous reckless driving incidents within a set timeframe, a new conviction may be kept on the record longer than it would for a first-time offender, reflecting efforts to track patterns of dangerous driving.
Jurisdictional Rules
State laws and the regulations of motor vehicle agencies ultimately dictate how long a reckless driving conviction remains on an official record. Each state sets its own retention schedules, leading to wide variations. One state might keep the record for a few years, while another mandates much longer or even permanent retention, based on differing legislative priorities and administrative procedures.
License Points and Insurance
A reckless driving conviction usually results in driver’s license points and affects auto insurance costs. State motor vehicle agencies often use point systems, assigning higher values to serious offenses like reckless driving. Accumulating too many points within a specific period can lead to license suspension or revocation.
Insurance companies view reckless driving as a sign of high-risk behavior. Accessing driving records, insurers often increase premiums substantially following such a conviction, sometimes by 50 percent or more, as the driver is considered statistically more likely to cause future accidents. This can also make it harder to find affordable coverage.
Potential for Clearing or Reducing the Charge
It may be possible to lessen the long-term impact of a reckless driving charge on a driving record. Certain legal processes can change how the incident is recorded or prevent a conviction entirely.
Negotiating with prosecutors might lead to a plea bargain, where the individual pleads guilty to a lesser offense, like improper or careless driving. If approved by the court, the record reflects the less serious charge, which often has different retention rules than reckless driving.
Some jurisdictions offer diversion or deferral programs as an alternative. If eligible, completing program requirements, such as traffic school or maintaining a clean record, can lead to the dismissal of the original charge. A dismissal means no conviction is added to the official driving history.
Expungement (removing records) or sealing (limiting access) may be options, but often not for reckless driving convictions, which many states classify as significant misdemeanors ineligible for such relief. However, if the charge was dismissed, resulted in an acquittal, or was never prosecuted, the arrest record might be eligible for expungement or sealing, subject to specific procedures and waiting periods. Modifying the charge or achieving a dismissal generally offers the clearest path to altering the long-term record of a reckless driving incident.
