One driver in Washington, D.C. has racked up 891 speeding tickets totaling $259,214 in fines, and police have almost no way to stop him.
How is this possible? Because, despite speed cameras littering the District of Columbia, authorities can’t enforce any speeding tickets issued by the cameras unless the driver lives in Washington, D.C.
This is a problem since so many drivers who reside in Virginia and Maryland travel to Washington, D.C.
67 of the 103 cars with the most tickets in fiscal 2025 had Virginia license plates, 25 had Maryland plates, and just three had D.C. plates. Cameras captured thirteen vehicles with D.C. plates, thirty-seven with Virginia plates, and thirty-five with Maryland plates among the top 100 speeds over the previous two years.
Some drivers in Washington, D.C. have racked up hundreds of speeding tickets
According to the Washington Post, one Audi driver with Maryland license plates has received 891 speeding tickets, totaling $259,214 in fines. 18 of those speeding tickets have come in just this month alone. Another driver in a Hyundai registered in Virginia has received 689 tickets in Washington, D.C.
In a single year, another car with a Maryland license plate received 182 speeding tickets in just an eight-block section of the city. Another car with Maryland tags received 109 tickets in a year in the northeastern section of the city.
Another driver with Virginia plates got 556 speeding tickets in 12 months and piled up $293,000 in fines. The city finally towed the car, but that’s about all the police can do with these scofflaws. D.C. can only seize out-of-state vehicles if they catch them parked on a street in the city.
Neighboring states Virginia and Maryland are considering legislation to help D.C. enforce these speeding tickets more effectively. Until then, there really isn’t anything to stop these speeders from continuing to ignore the tickets.