---
type: "Bill"
title: "Failure to obey highway sign where driver sleeping or resting; prepayable offense."
description: "Provides that a violation of a highway sign where a driver has parked or stopped his vehicle on the shoulder of the highway in order to sleep or rest is a prepayable offense unless such vehicle is parked or stopped in such manner as to impede or render dangerous the shoulder or other portion of the highway."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1021"
citation: "Virginia SB 1021 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts Not of Record", "Highways", "Bridges and Ferries", "Motor Vehicles"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["George L. Barker"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-04"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/92f0662f-3dee-4ecb-8f0c-9dc1fa4fc0ef"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1021"
source_hash: "0f44b9eec074e98b5dcf5335a4633725069f623ba24f022a315223272b62775c"
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 1021 (2017) — Failure to obey highway sign where driver sleeping or resting; prepayable offense.

Provides that a violation of a highway sign where a driver has parked or stopped his vehicle on the shoulder of the highway in order to sleep or rest is a prepayable offense unless such vehicle is parked or stopped in such manner as to impede or render dangerous the shoulder or other portion of the highway.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0504)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0504)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1021ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1021ER)
3. **Senate: Floor substitute printed 17105103D-S1 (Barker)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1021S1)
4. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102922D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1021)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Transportation — **15–6** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Transportation — **7–6** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **21–19** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **6–1** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House — **82–14** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- George L. Barker — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-04** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102922D `introduction`
- **2017-01-04** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-30** Passed by for the day
- **2017-01-31** Passed by for the day
- **2017-02-02** Passed by for the day
- **2017-02-03** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-03** Reading of substitute waived
- **2017-02-03** Floor substitute printed 17105103D-S1 (Barker)
- **2017-02-03** Substitute by Senator Barker agreed to 17105103D-S1
- **2017-02-03** Engrossed by Senate - floor substitute SB1021S1
- **2017-02-08** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-08** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-09** Assigned Transportation sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-17** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Passed House (82-Y 14-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-22** Enrolled
- **2017-02-22** Signed by President
- **2017-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-23** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/23/17
- **2017-02-23** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 504 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/92f0662f-3dee-4ecb-8f0c-9dc1fa4fc0ef`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).