The skill and habits of each driver on the road affect the safety of everyone else. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and the state government places certain restrictions on those privileges.
You can lose your license for an arrest or conviction of certain offenses, such as impaired driving. However, you could also lose your license even if you only commit a minor infraction. Georgia, like many other states, has a points system for licenses.
Each time a police officer cites you for an infraction, the number of points on your license increases. Understanding how the system works can help protect your driving privileges.
How many points can you accrue and still drive?
Georgia’s Point System looks back at 24 months of driving history. Anyone who accumulates 15 points during a two-year period will automatically have their license suspended. Those points can also affect how much you pay for insurance or whether an employer wants you to perform a job with driving-related responsibilities.
What are the points that Georgia assesses for different offenses?
The number of points a single violation carries ranges between one and six. One-point violations include texting while driving, driving in a lane designated for other traffic or a first offense involving the improper restraint of a child.
Aggressive driving, exceeding the speed limit by 34 miles per hour or more and passing a school bus unlawfully are all six-point offenses. All other common citations fall somewhere in the middle.
How do you reduce the number of points?
You can ask the state to reduce the points on your license. They can remove up to seven points once every five years after completing a defensive driving course. Other than asking for a reduction, the only other realistic means of reducing the number of points on your license is to a maintain driving record without additional infractions for multiple years.
Traffic tickets may not be as serious in a legal sense as a criminal charge, but they can affect your life negatively if you don’t respond to them appropriately. Fighting back against traffic tickets can help you protect your driving record and your license while also keeping insurance costs low.