DRIVERS have been warned to prepare for increased car bills as a new road law will see a sharp increase in insurance premiums.
Car owners will be punished for their inexperience under the newly expanded surcharge stipulations.
Car owners will have to pay more for insurance each month thanks to a new law[/caption]
Only certain drivers will be impacted by the change (stock)[/caption]
The so-called liability rule will apply to all drivers in North Carolina after former Governor Roy Cooper signed it into law.
Under the legislation, young or inexperienced policyholders now have to pay a monthly surcharge for even longer.
North Carolina law previously required drivers to apply an inexperienced operator surcharge to their monthly insurance premiums until they had driven for over three years.
Thanks to the new law, the surcharge has been expanded to any driver who has less than eight years of experience.
The new fees that apply to years four through eight are lower than the established fines for the initial years of driving.
Plus, drivers who are paying for the surcharges can be punished with even more fees if they’re caught breaking the rules.
Anyone who is convicted of a moving traffic violation that results in four or more insurance points being assigned has to pay their surcharges for five more years.
This is up from the previous rule, which only added three more years of the surcharges.
This isn’t the only change that’s coming to drivers in North Carolina – the state has overhauled its insurance requirements for car owners of all ages.
As of July 1, policyholders in the state now have to increase their required minimum liability insurance.
Previously, car owners had to have minimum limits of $30,000 per person, $25,00 per accident for property damages, and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, according to Nexstar affiliate WJZY.
Now, they have to have limits of $50,000 per person, $50,000 per accident for property damages, and $100,000 per accident for bodily harm.
Drivers may notice their monthly premiums will jump when they renew their policies this year.
New driving laws in 2025
Drivers across the United States are having to adjust to a slew of new road rules that take effect in 2025. Some of those include:
- Daylighting law prohibiting drivers from parking their cars within 20 feet of any crosswalk in California
- Stricter street racing penalties in California
- Changes to car seat age and weight requirements in Colorado
- Fines for failing to follow designated enter and exit areas for express lanes in Colorado
- Bans on handheld devices while driving in Colorado and Missouri
- Drivers allowed to have a digital copy of their license on their cell phones in Illinois
- Yield right of way to emergency vehicles in Illinois
- Drivers required to take a vision test to renew licenses in Kentucky
- School bus safety law in Oregon
- Vehicle safety inspections scrapped in Texas
MORE NEW LAWS
The rules of the road changed in many states on July 1, as at least eight new laws took effect.
One of those is a so-called “touch” crackdown, which enforces new measures on cell phone usage while behind the wheel.
Under the new law, drivers are no longer allowed to hold their phone, watch something on it, or scroll while driving.
Instead, they will have to mount the phone in the center of the car and only touch it once to answer a call or start navigation.
Anyone who is caught breaking the rule will have to pay out $100.
Another new rule has imposed $500 fines on drivers who are traveling too fast
And a different new law will see drivers making room for motorcyclists on the roads.
