Transportation

Lighted vehicle headlights; lawful stop by law-enforcement officer. Clarifies that any evidence discovered or obtained following the lawful stop by a law-enforcement officer of a vehicle displaying no lighted headlights may be offered as evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding if such evidence is otherwise admissible.

Study; Virginia Department of Transportation; alternatives to use of Sodium Chloride to treat and pretreat roadways for winter weather; report. Directs the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to conduct a study on safe and environmentally sensitive alternatives to using Sodium Chloride, or rock salt, to treat and pretreat roadways for winter weather. Such study shall measure the impact of current treatment and pretreatment substances on infrastructure and the environment and their corrosive effects on personal property and compare such impacts with those of potential alternatives, including nonchemical substances and new technologies. VDOT is directed to submit a report to the chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Transportation by November 15, 2026, on its findings and include in such report an accounting of the annual spending by the state and local governments since 2020 on treating and pretreating activities and the amounts budgeted for 2026-2028.

School bus video-monitoring systems; enforcement; sworn or affirmed certificates. Authorizes, for enforcement of violations related to passing a stopped school bus via video-monitoring system, the use of a certificate, or a facsimile thereof, sworn to or affirmed by a law-enforcement officer or a retired sworn law-enforcement officer, as defined in the bill, based on recorded images produced by the video-monitoring system as prima facie evidence of the facts contained therein.

Driver improvement clinics; motorcycle driver improvement clinics; Motorcycle Driver Improvement Clinic Fund; created. Creates motorcycle driver improvement clinics, defined in the bill, as a subset of existing driver improvement clinics and provides requirements and parameters for the instruction and administration of the motorcycle driver improvement clinics. The bill authorizes courts to direct defendants who have committed violations while operating a motorcycle to attend a motorcycle driver improvement clinic and satisfy the requirements thereof. The bill also creates the Motorcycle Driver Improvement Clinic Fund for the operation and administration of motorcycle driver improvement clinics. The bill specifies that priority be given to the creation of motorcycle driver improvement clinics that operate as computer-based clinics.

Emergency vehicles; exempt from certain traffic regulations. Authorizes a law-enforcement vehicle, defined in current law, operated by or under the direction of a federal, state, or local law-enforcement officer to disregard parking and stopping provisions and expands the situations in which such vehicles may disregard speed limits to include when establishing evidence of other violations of law and when responding to an emergency in which emergency lights and siren may pose a safety risk.