Got a Lead Foot? Colorado's New Crackdown on Repeat Speeders and Illegal Passing

What This Bill Actually Does

Colorado has seen a deadly rise in head-on collisions, especially on rural highways where frustrated drivers make risky passes. Senate Bill 26-035, introduced by Senator Dylan Roberts, aims to curb this by drastically upping the consequences for aggressive driving. First, it tackles improper passing. If you illegally overtake a vehicle on the left in a no-passing zone, the penalty jumps from four points on your license to eight points. Plus, the bill makes the financial penalty mandatory—judges will no longer be allowed to suspend any portion of the fine. To make sure drivers know the rules, the bill clarifies that a no-passing zone is officially indicated by a solid yellow line, and it requires the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to prioritize putting up warning signs in areas that have seen a spike in these passing-related crashes.

The second half of the bill is all about the repeat speeder. It specifically targets drivers caught going over the "reasonable and prudent" speed, or exceeding the 75 mph maximum lawful speed. If you get a second speeding ticket within a 12-month period, you'll get an extra two points slapped on your license on top of the standard points for the ticket. A third violation in a 24-month period adds four extra points, and a fifth violation in a five-year period adds a massive eight extra points.

Here is the part that will really change how tickets are handled: if you hit these repeat offender thresholds, you lose the privilege of just paying your ticket online or by mail. The bill revokes your eligibility for a standard penalty assessment notice. Instead, police officers will have to issue a summons and complaint, meaning you are legally required to show up in court to face the judge. It's a structural shift designed to make repeat speeding significantly more inconvenient and risky for your driving privileges.

What It Means for You

For the average Colorado commuter, road-tripper, or parent shuttling kids to practice, this bill turns a minor bad habit into a major risk to your driving privileges. Under Colorado law, accumulating 12 points in 12 months (or 18 points in 24 months) triggers a license suspension for adult drivers. Under SB26-035, a single illegal pass in a solid-yellow zone gets you eight points—putting you two-thirds of the way to a suspended license in just one traffic stop. If you're someone who frequently drives rural routes like Highway 285 or I-70 where slow-moving RVs tempt drivers into dangerous passes, you need to recalibrate your patience.

The repeat speeding penalties are equally sneaky if you aren't paying attention. Let's say you get caught doing 80 mph on the interstate twice in one year. Not only are you paying the fines, but that second ticket now carries a two-point premium. More importantly, losing the ability to just pay a ticket by mail means you will have to take time off work to appear in court for a mandatory summons. That means burning PTO, potentially hiring a traffic lawyer, and dealing with court fees.

What you can do:

• Check your driving record: Go to the Colorado DMV website and pull your current motor vehicle record to see how many points you currently have.
• Contact your state senator: If you live in a rural district where passing lanes are scarce, let your representative know how this might impact locals versus tourists.
• Watch the calendar: If passed, this takes effect in August 2026. Keep an eye on your local speed traps as the effective date approaches.

What It Means for Your Business

If your business relies on people driving—whether you manage a fleet of delivery vans, run a landscaping crew, or employ a team of traveling sales reps—this bill needs to be on your radar right now. The rapid accumulation of points under SB26-035 means your employees could lose their commercial or standard driver's licenses much faster than before. An employee who makes one bad passing decision in a company truck will instantly rack up eight points. If that same employee already had a minor speeding ticket, they could suddenly find themselves legally barred from doing their job.

Furthermore, the shift from mail-in tickets to a mandatory court summons for repeat speeders will directly hit your bottom line through lost productivity. If your regional manager gets their third speeding ticket in two years, they can't just expense a $150 fine and keep driving. They will be mandated to appear in court, pulling them offline for at least half a day. CDOT is also mandated to prioritize new signage in high-crash zones, which means heavy construction traffic or freight routes might see new permanent no-passing enforcement zones popping up, potentially slowing down regular rural logistics routes.

What you should do this week:

• Audit your fleet policies: Review your employee handbook. Make sure you have clear language about who pays for traffic violations and what happens to an employee's job status if their license is suspended.
• Run motor vehicle record (MVR) checks: Pull fresh MVRs for all active drivers to see who is currently sitting on points. Anyone near the threshold needs a warning before these new rules kick in.
• Schedule a safety briefing: Hold a 10-minute stand-up with your drivers specifically covering the new eight-point penalty for passing on a solid yellow line.

Follow the Money

From a taxpayer perspective, this bill is surprisingly cheap to implement. According to the nonpartisan fiscal note, the state only needs a one-time cash fund appropriation of $14,234 for the Department of Revenue in FY 2026-27. That money simply pays for about 40 hours of IT programming to update the state's DRIVES system so it can calculate the new point penalties and handle the coding for successive speeding offenses.

The local impact is a bit of a mixed bag. Because repeat speeders will be forced into the court system via a summons and complaint, county and municipal courts will see a slight uptick in caseloads. However, the fiscal note assumes this will be manageable with existing resources. There is also a tiny bump in state revenue expected from folks paying fees to reinstate driver's licenses that got suspended due to the accelerated point system. Finally, while CDOT has to put up new warning signs, they are required to do it "within existing resources"—meaning money that would have gone to other routine highway maintenance will just be shifted to pay for these new no-passing signs.

Where This Bill Stands

Senate Bill 26-035 was introduced in the Senate on January 26, 2026, by Senator Dylan Roberts. It is currently assigned to the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee, which is its first major hurdle. Given the data showing rising traffic fatalities in Colorado—and the fact that this bill requires practically zero new state funding—it has a strong chance of moving forward. Traffic safety bills that don't ask for large budget increases usually see broad bipartisan support.

If the bill passes the full legislature and is signed by the Governor, the changes will take effect on August 12, 2026 (assuming the legislature adjourns on time in May). It will apply to any traffic infractions committed on or after that date. Keep an eye on the committee calendar; if you want to testify about how these penalties affect rural commuters or commercial drivers, the upcoming Transportation & Energy Committee hearing will be your best shot.