NRS 484B.600: Nevada Basic Speed Rule, Fines, and Points

NRS 484B.600 is Nevada’s basic speed law. It makes it illegal to drive faster than road, traffic, and weather conditions safely allow, faster than a posted limit, or faster than 80 miles per hour anywhere in the state, and it lets a court treat extreme speeding as a misdemeanor rather than a civil infraction.¹ If you’ve been stopped in Nevada, this is the statute the officer is working from.

The Five Ways to Violate the Statute

Subsection 1 of NRS 484B.600 lists five separate prohibitions. You cannot drive:

Faster than is reasonable given traffic, road surface, road width, weather, and other highway conditions
At any speed that endangers the life, body, or property of another person
Faster than a speed posted by a public authority
At a speed that causes injury to a person or damage to property
Faster than 80 miles per hour, anywhere in Nevada, under any conditions

These are independent grounds for a ticket.¹ An officer can cite you for driving too fast for conditions even if you were under the posted limit, and can cite you for endangering someone even if the speedometer read a legal number. You don’t have to exceed a sign to break this law.

What Counts as a Reasonable Speed

The statute names four specific factors that shape a “reasonable” speed: how heavy the traffic is, the condition of the road surface, the width of the road, and the weather. It also folds in “other highway conditions,” which lets officers and courts weigh anything else relevant, such as debris, an accident ahead, glare, or poor lighting.¹

Courts read these factors together, not one at a time. Heavy traffic on its own may not make 55 mph unreasonable on a wide highway. Add wet pavement and reduced visibility, and the same speed can be a violation. Driving 40 mph in a 45 zone during a whiteout can be unlawful even though no sign said to slow down.

Posted Limits and the 80-MPH Ceiling

Two of the five prohibitions deal with fixed numbers rather than judgment calls. Paragraph (c) makes any speed above a posted limit a violation, and paragraph (e) sets an absolute statewide ceiling of 80 miles per hour. That 80-mph cap applies regardless of what a sign says or how empty and dry the road happens to be.¹

The specific numbers you see on Nevada’s signs come from other sections of Chapter 484B. But when you exceed one of them, the citation is written under paragraph (c) of 484B.600, and the penalties below apply.

Fines and When Speeding Becomes a Misdemeanor

Penalties under NRS 484B.600 scale with how far over you were and whether anything got hurt or damaged.¹

For violations of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), or (e), the fine is capped at $20 for each mile per hour over the posted limit or over what would have been reasonable. Fifteen mph over tops out at $300 before court fees.
If the speeding caused injury or property damage, the civil penalty rises to a maximum of $1,000.
Driving 30 mph or more over the posted limit is a misdemeanor. That means possible jail time and a criminal record, not just a bigger fine.

The misdemeanor line is the one to watch. A 95-in-a-65 stop is a criminal charge, not a traffic infraction, and it will show up on a background check.

Hitting a Pedestrian, Cyclist, or Scooter Rider

Subsection 2 adds a stacked penalty when a speeding driver collides with a pedestrian or someone on a bicycle, electric bicycle, or electric scooter. The driver pays whatever the underlying speeding violation carries, plus an additional penalty under NRS 484B.653.¹ The extra penalty is added to the base fine, not substituted for it.

Work Zone Speeding

Subsection 3 of NRS 484B.600 cross-references NRS 484B.130, which imposes a doubled penalty for speeding in a highway work zone. The court adds a separate penalty equal to the one imposed for the underlying violation. For a civil infraction, that additional penalty caps at $250. For a criminal offense, it caps at $1,000, six months of imprisonment, or 120 hours of community service.²

The enhancement applies when workers are on-site or the roadway has been physically altered by the construction, such as through lane shifts, narrowed lanes, or temporary surfaces. Driving through an area where signs are up but no work is active may not trigger it, though the posted reduced limit still governs.

Demerit Points and License Suspension

Nevada’s DMV adds demerit points to your license based on how far over you were:³

1 to 10 mph over: 1 point
11 to 20 mph over: 2 points
21 to 30 mph over: 3 points
31 to 40 mph over: 4 points
41+ mph over: 5 points

Twelve points in any 12-month period triggers an automatic six-month suspension. That total is easier to reach than drivers expect. A 3-point ticket and a 4-point ticket in the same year already put you past halfway, and one 5-point conviction plus a couple of smaller violations can hit the ceiling.

Getting a Ticket Reduced

Subsection 4 of NRS 484B.600 gives courts discretion to downgrade a moving violation to a non-moving violation. As of July 1, 2026, the process requires you to admit the violation, pay the full fine and all fees before your first required court appearance, and provide the court with a copy of your driving record. If that record doesn’t show a pattern of moving violations, the court can reclassify the offense.⁴

A non-moving violation doesn’t add demerit points and generally doesn’t drive insurance premiums up. For a clean-record driver, the reduction can save more over time than the fine costs. A record showing repeat moving violations usually kills the option.

If You Don’t Live in Nevada

A Nevada speeding ticket follows a visitor home. Nevada belongs to both the Driver License Compact and the Non-Resident Violator Compact.⁵ Under the first, Nevada reports moving-violation convictions to your home state, which then applies its own points and surcharges as if the offense happened locally. Under the second, ignoring the citation can lead your home state to suspend your license until you resolve the Nevada ticket.

Extra Exposure for CDL Holders

Commercial drivers face federal consequences on top of the state penalty. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration treats any speeding conviction of 15 mph or more over the limit as “excessive speeding,” a serious traffic violation. That classification applies whether the CDL holder was behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle or a personal car when cited.⁶ Two serious violations within three years results in CDL disqualification.

Because Nevada’s misdemeanor threshold sits at 30 mph over, a CDL holder cited at that speed catches a state criminal charge and a federal serious-violation count at the same time. Even a 15-to-29 mph ticket, a civil infraction under Nevada law, still counts toward the federal two-strike rule. That makes subsection 4’s reduction pathway especially valuable when a CDL holder qualifies for it.

1
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 484B.600 – Basic Rule; Penalties; Discretion of Court to Reduce Violation in Certain Circumstances; Maximum Fine; Unlawful Act
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 484B.130 – Double Penalty for Certain Traffic Violations Committed in Work Zones; Exception in Certain Temporary Traffic Control Zones
3
Nevada DMV. Demerit Point System
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 484B – Rules of the Road
5
AAMVA. Driver License Compact Non-Resident Violator Compact
6
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. If a CDL Holder Was Convicted of One Excessive Speeding Violation