Summer 2025 Motor Vehicle Law Changes – North Carolina Criminal Law

The legislature enacted a raft of changes this summer to motor vehicle and criminal law. This post examines three session laws that enhanced criminal penalties and revised regulations for motor vehicle offenses and operation. The changes cover broad ground, including changing vehicle inspection requirements, authorizing speed-measuring cameras, and heightening penalties for certain motor vehicle offenses that result in injury. Read on to learn more.

S.L. 2025-47. For those interested in motor vehicle law generally, it may be worthwhile to read the entirety of S.L. 2025-47, titled “An Act to Revise Laws Concerning the Department of Transportation.” This section addresses four changes in the Act: (1) speed-measuring cameras; (2) trucks on the highway; (3) driver’s license extensions; and (4) window tint regulations.

Speed-measuring cameras. Cities and counties are now authorized to install approved electronic speed-measuring systems in school zones. There must be advance warning signs within 1,000 feet of the cameras and the cameras must be regularly calibrated and tested in accordance with the newly enacted G.S. 8-50.4 (also a product of S.L. 2025-47). Violations of the speed limit captured by the system may only be enforced as noncriminal violations and will not carry license or insurance points. The civil penalty assessed is $250, which must be paid or contested within 30 days. If a person is delinquent in responding, there may be a late fee of up to $50 and the DMV must refuse to register the vehicle used in the offense. (Effective October 1, 2025).

Trucks on the highway. Readers may recognize G.S. 20-146 as the provision that justifies a traffic stop for someone that leaves their lane of travel. S.L. 2025-47 creates a new subsection, G.S. 20-146(f), that prohibits motor vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 pounds from traveling in the left lane of a highway with six or more lanes.  Worried your SUV might tip the scale? Don’t—vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds are otherwise known as Class A and B vehicles, which require specific licenses to drive and include vehicles such as semi-trucks, garbage trucks, and transit buses. (Effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025).

Driver’s license extensions. Driver’s licenses that expire on or after July 1, 2025 are now subject to a moratorium on the requirement to renew. Qualifying licenses now remain valid for up to two years after they would have otherwise expired. This does not apply to licenses that expired before that date, or licenses that have otherwise been canceled or revoked for another reason. It also does not apply to commercial driver’s licenses. (Effective July 1, 2025).

Window tint regulations. Annual vehicle safety inspections pursuant to G.S. 20-183.3 no longer require an examination of a vehicle’s window tint. While this removes a step during the inspection, it does not otherwise change G.S. 20-127(d)(2), which makes driving on a street or public vehicular area with a window tint in violation of the requirements of G.S. 20-127 a class 3 misdemeanor. This means that a vehicle with an illegal tint will no longer fail an inspection, but it may still subject the driver to being stopped and charged with a criminal offense. G.S. 20-127 has also been amended to require drivers to roll down a driver or passenger side tinted window during a traffic stop (depending on which side law enforcement approaches). (Effective December 1, 2025).

S.L. 2025-70. In this legislation, there are two sections that relate to motor vehicle law. Both involve the criminal offense of failure to yield.

The first change is to set the offense level of failure to yield causing serious bodily injury for five different circumstances. If a driver fails to yield and causes serious bodily injury (1) while approaching or entering an intersection, (2) turning at a stop or yield sign, (3) entering a roadway, (4) upon the approach of an emergency vehicle, or (5) at highway construction or maintenance, the offense level is now set as a Class 2 misdemeanor and continues to require a fine of $500 and license revocation for 90 days. (G.S. 20-160.1, effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025).

The second change sets the offense level for failure to yield in another circumstance. G.S. 120-175.2 provides that a white cane or a guide dog may serve as a traffic signal in certain circumstances, requiring oncoming traffic to yield to a blind or partially blind pedestrian. This subsection only applies to streets, highway crossings, or intersections that do not have a traffic officer or traffic-control signals regulating the movement of traffic. Under these circumstances, if a blind or partially blind pedestrian extends a white cane or is accompanied by a guide dog, the pedestrian is entitled to right-of-way and oncoming traffic must come to a full stop and remain stopped until the pedestrian has crossed the road or intersection. For streets, highway crossings, or intersections that do have traffic-control regulating the movement of traffic, this subsection grants the blind or partially blind pedestrian right-of-way if they are partly across a crossing when signals change until they are safely to the other side. The new legislation clarifies that violations of this subsection are Class 2 misdemeanors. (Effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025).

S.L. 2025-71. Finally, the legislature increased the penalties for reckless driving and unlawful racing when either offense causes injury, and enhanced sentencing and driver’s license revocation consequences for leaving the scene of a crash in violation of G.S. 20-166.

Reckless driving. Before the changes, G.S. 20-140 established four Class 2 misdemeanors: reckless driving carelessly and heedlessly in willful or wanton disregard of others, reckless driving without due caution and circumspection at a speed or manner that endangers or is likely to endanger any person or property, and reckless driving in either of these manners in a commercial vehicle over a certain weight. Now, if any of these violations cause serious injury, the offense is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and if any of these violations cause serious bodily injury (as defined in G.S. 14-32.4), the offense is a Class A1 misdemeanor. (Effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025)

Unlawful racing. Before the changes, G.S. 20-141.3 set out four offenses: willfully operating a motor vehicle in a prearranged speed competition with another motor vehicle (a Class 1 misdemeanor), willfully operating a motor vehicle in a spontaneous speed competition with another motor vehicle (a Class 2 misdemeanor), knowingly allowing a motor vehicle under a person’s ownership or control to be used in an unlawful prearranged speed competition (a Class 1 misdemeanor), and placing or receiving any bet, wager, or other thing of value from the outcome of an unlawful prearranged speed competition (a Class 1 misdemeanor). Now, like the changes to reckless driving, there are enhancements if any of the offenses in G.S. 20-141.3 result in injury. If the speed competition causes serious injury, any violation of the above listed offenses is a Class H felony. If the speed competition causes serious bodily injury or death, any violation of the above listed offenses is a Class G felony. Prior to the changes, violations of G.S. 20-141.3 involving prearranged racing also resulted in revocation of the person’s driver’s license for three years. Now, if the offense has been elevated to a Class H felony, that time period is increased to four years, and if the offense has been elevated to a Class G felony, the revocation is permanent. (Effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025).

Duty to stop in the event of a crash. G.S. 20-166 sets out the responsibilities of drivers when they know or reasonably should know that they have been involved in a crash. If a driver knows or reasonably should know that they have been involved in a crash that resulted in serious bodily injury or death, and they leave the scene of the crash in violation of G.S. 20-166(a), the offense is a Class F felony. S.L. 2025-71 amended this subsection, which now requires the defendant to be sentenced in the aggravated range of the appropriate prior record level where the crash resulted in the death of another person. It also adds an offense to those requiring the driver’s license to be revoked, and extends the time period for certain revocations. Previously, a person who did not provide their identifying information or did not render reasonable assistance to someone injured in the crash in violation of G.S. 20-166(b) would not be subject to a driver’s license revocation. Now, their license must be revoked for one year. For drivers that leave the scene in violation of G.S. 20-166(a1) (a crash causing injury), the one-year mandatory driver’s license revocation remains the same. Previously, drivers that left the scene of a crash in violation of G.S. 20-166(a) (a crash causing serious bodily injury or death) were also subject to a one-year revocation. Now, if the crash resulted in serious bodily injury, the person’s license must be revoked for four years, and if the crash resulted in a person’s death, the person’s license must be permanently revoked. (Effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2025).