If you drive in Colorado, a new speeding and passing law is about to raise the stakes on repeat violations, and the timing catches a lot of people off guard. Senate Bill 26-035 was signed on May 27, 2026, but a signature and an enforceable law are two different things, and that gap matters if you want to know what applies to you now versus later this year.
At Shazam Kianpour & Associates, we handle traffic violations across the Denver metro area every day, and clients ask us constantly when new penalty laws actually kick in. We want to walk through what SB 26-035 changes, when it takes effect, and why the line between careless and reckless driving matters more under this bill than it used to.
What SB 26-035 Changes
SB 26-035 raises penalties tied to speeding, illegal passing, and repeat violations on Colorado roads. Lawmakers pointed to a rise in deadly collisions, including head-on crashes from illegal passing in no-passing zones, as the reason for the change. The bill adds a new six-point penalty for improper passing in a no-passing zone and clarifies no-passing zones can be marked by solid yellow line pavement markings alone, not just signage.
The bill also stacks new points onto excessive speeding violations. A second violation for driving twenty miles per hour or more over the reasonable speed, or over the maximum lawful speed of seventy-five miles per hour, within twelve months now adds two extra points. A third or later violation within twenty-four months adds four more, and a fifth or later violation within five years adds eight. Driving one hundred miles per hour or faster carries its own separate four-point add-on, no matter how many prior violations a driver has.
These added points matter because Colorado’s habitual traffic offender rules can trigger a license suspension once enough qualifying violations pile up in a set window, so a law adding points to speeding and passing convictions can push a driver toward that threshold faster.
When the New Penalties Take Effect
This is where drivers get confused. SB 26-035 does not include a safety clause, so it follows Colorado’s standard constitutional timeline instead of taking effect the moment it was signed. The General Assembly adjourned its 2026 session on May 13, 2026, and non-safety-clause legislation takes effect ninety days after adjournment unless a referendum petition is filed against it.
That ninety-day window closes on August 11, 2026, so SB 26-035 becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. on August 12, 2026, assuming no petition is filed. The law applies only to traffic infractions committed on or after that date. A citation issued before August 12 does not carry these new point increases, though the underlying violation and its existing penalties still apply.
Why Careless Versus Reckless Matters More Now
One detail gets overlooked here: how this bill interacts with the existing gap between careless driving and reckless driving in Colorado. Reckless driving already counts as a habitual traffic offender strike, worth eight or more points, while careless driving does not carry that weight on its own. Three strikes of eight points or more within seven years can label a driver a habitual traffic offender and trigger a five-year suspension. Two DWAI convictions combined with a single reckless driving conviction within that seven-year window is a common pattern that alone meets the threshold.
With SB 26-035 layering new points onto repeat speeding and illegal passing violations, there are now more paths toward that habitual offender threshold than before. A driver who once shrugged off a second or third speeding ticket could now be looking at points that build faster than expected.
What a Citation Means for Your License
We will not walk through the point math here, because every driving record differs, and the mix of existing points, new points under this bill, and the seven-year and twenty-four-month lookback windows is not something to calculate alone. What matters is that a citation that looks minor on paper can carry consequences that add up quickly under Colorado’s point system once SB 26-035 takes effect in August.
For more than two decades, speeding has been a factor in roughly one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities nationwide, which helps explain the push behind this bill, though it does not change what a driver facing a citation actually needs: someone who understands how these penalties stack and what options exist to protect a license.
Shazam Kianpour & Associates Is Ready to Help
Shazam Kianpour has spent more than 22 years defending Colorado drivers against traffic and criminal charges, and our attorneys each focus on different corners of criminal and traffic law so no case gets spread thin across a generalist team. We have represented drivers across Denver and Aurora in DMV hearings and in court on exactly these kinds of point-based penalty disputes.
If you are facing a speeding, reckless driving, or careless driving citation and want to know what SB 26-035 means for your license, reach out through our contact form before your court date or DMV hearing arrives.
Written by
Shazam KianpourDenver Criminal Defense Attorney & Founder, Shazam Kianpour & Associates, P.C.