---
type: "Bill"
title: "Careless driving; vulnerable road users."
description: "Careless driving; vulnerable road users. Provides that a person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if he operates a vehicle in a careless or distracted manner and causes the death or serious bodily injury of a vulnerable road user. Current law only imposes the penalty if such careless or distracted operation causes serious bodily injury to the vulnerable road user. The bill also allows a court to suspend the driver's license or restrict the driver's license of a person convicted of careless driving for up to six months. This bill is identical to HB 920."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "SB 247"
citation: "Virginia SB 247 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Scott A. Surovell"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 27
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2022-01-11"
last_action: "2022-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/71ebbc16-6b76-4b21-afb3-01ce2216014a"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+SB247"
source_hash: "e87fe50976002b77f23f6aecd11e1eed1fa265855a4dfb6b1575b6ce8ca99a5c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 247 (2022) — Careless driving; vulnerable road users.

Careless driving; vulnerable road users. Provides that a person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor if he operates a vehicle in a careless or distracted manner and causes the death or serious bodily injury of a vulnerable road user. Current law only imposes the penalty if such careless or distracted operation causes serious bodily injury to the vulnerable road user. The bill also allows a court to suspend the driver's license or restrict the driver's license of a person convicted of careless driving for up to six months. This bill is identical to HB 920.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0507** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0507)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22103903D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB247)
3. **Printed as engrossed 22103903D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB247E)
4. **SB247ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB247ER)

## Votes

- Reported from Transportation (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Transportation (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Scott A. Surovell — primary (person)
- Terry G. Kilgore — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22103903D `introduction`
- **2022-01-11** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-20** Reported from Transportation (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-01-24** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2022-01-25** Passed by for the day
- **2022-01-26** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-01-26** Reading of amendment waived
- **2022-01-26** Amendment by Senator Surovell agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2022-01-26** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB247E
- **2022-01-26** Printed as engrossed 22103903D-E
- **2022-01-27** Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-01-28** Impact statement from DPB (SB247E)
- **2022-02-21** Placed on Calendar
- **2022-02-21** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-21** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-22** Reported from Transportation (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-24** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-02-25** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-02-25** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-02-25** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-01** Enrolled
- **2022-03-01** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-03-02** Signed by President
- **2022-03-03** Impact statement from DPB (SB247ER)
- **2022-03-11** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 11, 2022
- **2022-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2022
- **2022-04-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 507 (effective 7/1/22) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/71ebbc16-6b76-4b21-afb3-01ce2216014a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).