Points on Your NY License: Violations, Thresholds & Suspension

Points on your NY license are numeric values the DMV assigns to each traffic conviction to track unsafe driving. Two thresholds matter: six points within 18 months triggers a three-year fee called the Driver Responsibility Assessment, and 11 points within 24 months can get your license suspended. Several point values changed on February 16, 2026, so some violations now cost far more than they used to.

What Each Violation Is Worth

Every moving violation carries a set point value. The current schedule:

11 points: Speeding more than 40 mph over the limit; DWI, DWAI, aggravated DWI, DWAI-drugs, or chemical test refusal; aggravated unlicensed operation
8 points: Speeding 31 to 40 mph over the limit; passing a stopped school bus; speeding in a construction zone; over-height vehicle violations
6 points: Speeding 21 to 30 mph over the limit
5 points: Reckless driving; cell phone use while driving; texting while driving; speed contests and racing; railroad crossing violations; leaving the scene of a personal injury crash; failure to exercise due care; facilitating aggravated unlicensed operation
4 points: Speeding 11 to 20 mph over the limit; inadequate brakes on an employer’s vehicle
3 points: Speeding 1 to 10 mph over the limit; failing to yield the right of way; running a red light; disobeying a traffic signal or stop sign; improper passing or unsafe lane change; driving left of center or the wrong way; leaving the scene of a property damage crash; child safety restraint violations; no seatbelt (driver or passenger 16+)
2 points: Failure to signal, improper turn, most other moving violations not listed above
0 points: Tinted windows, driving unlicensed, uninspected vehicle, faulty equipment

One bad day can put you close to a suspension. A single ticket for 35 mph over the limit is worth eight points, and adding a texting conviction on top would push you to 13.¹

Several of these values changed starting February 16, 2026. Alcohol and drug-related driving convictions now carry 11 points, up from zero. Passing a stopped school bus jumped from five to eight. Leaving the scene of a personal injury crash went from three to five. Speed contests and racing, previously unscored, now carry five points. Over-height vehicle violations went from zero to eight.² Violations that occurred before February 16, 2026 keep the old values, even if the conviction lands afterward. The violation date is what counts.

How the DMV Counts Your Points

The DMV counts points from the date you committed the violation, not the date the court enters a conviction. A ticket written in March but not resolved until September still counts as a March violation. That matters because a case can sit open for months while the clock on your point window keeps running.¹

The window is rolling. Only violations from the most recent 24 months count toward the 11-point suspension threshold. Once 24 months pass from a specific violation date, those points drop out of the active total. The conviction itself stays on your driving record for years, but it stops contributing to your suspension risk.¹

The Driver Responsibility Assessment uses a different window of 18 months, so the two thresholds don’t line up. You can fall below the suspension threshold while still owing the assessment, or the reverse.

Six Points: The Driver Responsibility Assessment

Accumulate six or more points within 18 months and the DMV bills you a three-year surcharge separate from any court fines. You get a notice in the mail with the total and a payment schedule.³

The fee starts at $100 per year for three years at six points, for $300 total. Each additional point above six adds $25 per year for three years, or $75 per extra point. A driver at nine points pays the $300 base plus $225 for the three extra points, for $525 over three years.³

Certain convictions trigger the assessment regardless of your point total. Alcohol and drug-related driving offenses like DWI and DWAI carry their own assessment of $250 per year for three years, or $750 total. Missing a payment on any DRA bill results in an automatic license suspension until the balance is cleared.³

Eleven Points: Suspension

Once your point total hits 11 or more within 24 months, the DMV can suspend your license. You’ll get a notice listing the specific violations that pushed you past the threshold and the pending loss of your driving privileges.¹

You can request a DMV hearing, but the scope is narrow. You can argue that a violation on your record was committed by someone else. You cannot use the hearing to relitigate whether you were guilty of the underlying ticket; that fight belongs in traffic court. Or you can waive the hearing and accept the suspension.¹

If your license is suspended, you may qualify for a conditional license that allows limited driving for work, school, or medical appointments. The DMV will tell you about conditional license eligibility when it issues the suspension order.

Separately, three speeding convictions within 18 months trigger a mandatory license action on their own, regardless of point total. The pattern is enough even if each ticket was only three or four points.

Cutting Your Total With a Defensive Driving Course

New York’s Point and Insurance Reduction Program (PIRP, sometimes called IPIRP) lets you subtract up to four points from your running total by finishing an approved defensive driving course. The reduction applies to the calculation the DMV uses for suspension purposes, so it can be the difference between keeping and losing your license if you’re sitting at 12 or 13.⁴

The limits matter. The course does not erase violations from your driving record. Convictions and their original point values stay put; the DMV simply subtracts four when checking whether you crossed the 11-point line. You can use the course for point reduction only once every 18 months, and the reduction only applies to violations from the 18 months before you finished the course.⁴

The course also earns a 10% discount on your auto insurance base rate for three years. Retake it every 36 months to keep the discount. Only the principal operator on the policy gets the reduction, even if others on the same policy also complete the course.

The biggest catch: the course does not reduce or prevent the Driver Responsibility Assessment. Even if the four-point subtraction drops your calculated total below six, you still owe the DRA based on the original total. And if the DMV has already suspended your license or scheduled a hearing, the course won’t reverse that action.⁴

How Long Violations Stay on Your Record

Most traffic convictions appear on your standard driving record (called an abstract) through the end of the calendar year in which the conviction occurred, plus three more years. A conviction entered in April 2026 shows on the abstract through the end of 2029. DWI convictions stay visible for 15 years, and DWAI convictions for 10 years from the conviction date.⁵

New York also keeps a lifetime driving record with every conviction and accident it has ever logged for you. Employers, courts, and insurance companies can request that version, so a violation from a decade ago can still surface in some contexts even after it disappears from the standard abstract.

What Points Don’t Directly Control

Insurance premiums do not run off the DMV point system. Insurers pull your driving record and apply their own rating formulas to each conviction. Higher-point violations tend to produce bigger increases because they reflect more serious offenses, but the numbers on your license and the numbers on your premium are calculated separately. Shopping other carriers after a conviction is worth the effort because the same violation can produce very different quotes.

Out-of-state tickets usually don’t add points either. New York belongs to the Driver License Compact, so states share conviction information, but New York does not add points to your record for most out-of-state violations. A New Jersey speeding ticket costs you the New Jersey fine without adding New York points. The exceptions are alcohol and drug-related offenses, which New York records wherever they happen, and moving violations from Ontario or Quebec, which carry full New York point values. If you hold an out-of-state license and get a ticket in New York, New York reports the conviction to your home state, and your home state decides how to apply it.

If you hold a commercial driver’s license, the point system is only part of the picture. Federal rules impose separate CDL disqualification periods for “serious traffic violations” whether you were driving a commercial vehicle or your own car, and the alcohol threshold for CDL holders is 0.04% blood alcohol, half the standard limit.⁶⁷ For a CDL holder, fighting even a modest speeding ticket in court can be worth it.

1
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. The New York State Driver Point System
2
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. DMV Reminds New Yorkers of Updated Point Values for Driving Violations
3
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Driver Responsibility Assessment
4
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Point and Insurance Reduction Program (PIRP)
5
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Get My Own Driving Record (Abstract)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 USC 31310 – Disqualifications
7
eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers