A 4-minute lesson from the Massachusetts course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Moving violations and at-fault crashes both count against you. Pile up enough of them within a set time and the RMV requires retraining or suspends your license, and your insurance premium climbs too.
Know the rule
You're more than 50 percent at fault if your insurer finds you at fault under one of the 19 Standards of Fault AND has paid more than $1,000 for collision or property damage (or more than $1,000 for bodily injury when no property payment topped $1,000).
A motor vehicle violation or an at-fault crash. Each one counts toward a possible license suspension, and most out-of-state convictions count as if they happened in Massachusetts.
Driver Retraining is an eight-hour course: two four-hour sessions, or one eight-hour Saturday session where available. It changes driving behavior rather than teaching skills, and it doesn't remove offenses or surcharges from your record or replace other requirements.
A driver with three major moving violations, or any combination of twelve major or minor moving violations, within five years. Suspension: four years; reinstatement fee: $500.
The Merit Rating Board runs the Safe Driver Insurance Plan (SDIP): your premium depends on your driving record. Safe drivers' rates may go down; moving violations and crashes where you're more than 50 percent at fault raise them.
An attested (official) copy of your driving record costs $20; an unattested copy, available only online, costs $8. A record ordered by mail or phone may take ten business days.
Within 18 months you're ticketed for speeding and for failing to signal, then you rear-end a car and your insurer pays $2,500. That's three surchargeable events in two years: finish Driver Retraining within 90 days or your license is suspended.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
How many surchargeable events within two years requires you to complete a Driver Retraining course?
Two events
Five events
Three events
Seven events
Answer: Three events
Three surchargeable events within a two-year period triggers a required Driver Retraining course.