In Alabama traffic school is most commonly called defensive driving and is handled by the individual counties in Alabama. That means that rather than having a central agency that creates the laws and regulations for traffic school, traffic tickets, and speeding tickets in the state, each individual county clerk and county court are responsible determining who can take Alabama traffic school and who can not.
However even though the individual counties control Alabama traffic school and Alabama defensive driving, that does not mean that there are not state wide driving laws and points. In fact, Alabama adds points to your driving record for all speeding and traffic tickets. Below you can find the common points associated with Alabama traffic tickets:
- Speeding in Excess of Posted Limits: 2 points
- Speeding In Excess of 85 MPH (86 or above): 5 points
- Disregarding Traffic Control Device (stop sign, traffic light): 3 points
- Following Too Closely: 3 points
- Illegal Passing: 3 points
- Wrong Side of Road: 4 points
- Failure to Yield Right of Way: 5 points
- Passing Stopped School Bus: 5 points
- Reckless Driving: 6 points
- Any charge involving driving under the influence without mandatory license suspension: 6 points
In some cases you can have tickets and points removed from your record for completing an online or in person traffic school or defensive driving course. The easiest way to find out if you can take Alabama traffic school is to contact the court listed on your ticket. When you call ask to speak to the traffic violation dept or traffic court, and nicely ask whether or not you can take Alabama defensive driving. Sometimes it will be granted right away and in some counties you may need to appear in front of a judge to request traffic school. Always check your ticket as well because sometimes it is listed on the ticket itself.
The cost of Alabama traffic school will vary between counties and could be as low as $20 or as high as $300 for Alabama defensive driving. On average, Alabama traffic school costs around $130. In the long run this is much cheaper than auto insurance rate increases. On average, car insurance rates increase by 20% for the first ticket, 35% for the second ticket, and 50% for the third ticket. since points stay on your record for 5 years without taking traffic school in Alabama, that means you will pay those increase for 5 YEARS.
Let’s imagine you pay $100 monthly for auto insurance and then you get your first ticket. You will pay an extra $20 per month for 5 years, or 60 months. That’s an extra $1200!!
What if you have 2 tickets? You $120 monthly auto insurance rates, from your first ticket, would increase to $162 on average in Alabama. That is an extra $62 monthly from having no points on your record for 5 years, or 60 months. That’s an extra $3,720 over the course of 5 years, Would you rather just pay for Alabama traffic school?
Therefore even if traffic school costs $200, which seems like a lot, it is worth it in the long run and will save you lots of money. Taking Alabama traffic school and Alabama defensive driving is a wise and financially smart decision for anyone who has an Alabama traffic ticket.
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