Six New Traffic Safety Laws Take Effect. What Every Colorado Driver Needs to Know.

DENVER (Aug. 12, 2026) — Seven hundred one people were killed on Colorado roads last year. Two hundred thirty-five of them died in crashes involving an impaired driver.

Six new driving laws take effect across Colorado today, capping off the most consequential legislative session for traffic safety in decades. Together, they change what an officer must do at the scene of a deadly crash, standardize school zones, create more protections for kids on their way to school, restrict where a driver may legally stop their vehicle, increase costs for repeat speeders, and fundamentally change the way the state talks about car crashes — and more.

“2026 will be a transformative year for traffic safety in Colorado because Coloradans decided that what happened to their family should never happen to anybody else,” said Skyler McKinley, regional director of public affairs for AAA – The Auto Club Group. “That’s the story, here: When we look out for one another, we can fix what’s broken and save lives. That’s why drivers have a responsibility to take ten minutes to learn what’s changed — in school zones, in bike lanes, and across the state — and how they can protect others while behind the wheel.”

Two of the six laws taking effect today carry the names of Coloradans who did not come home, and all were carried through the Capitol on the voices of families motivated to make a difference by unthinkable tragedies.

What Changes Today

All six took effect at 12:01 a.m. today.

SB26-132, Magnus’ Law: A breath test offered at every fatal and serious crash

Named for Magnus White, a 17-year-old member of the USA Cycling National Team struck and killed while training on a Boulder roadway in 2023. Investigators found evidence the driver had consumed alcohol and drugs, but because no preliminary screening test was given at the scene, the driver was never charged with driving under the influence.

• An officer must now offer a voluntary preliminary breath test to a driver after a crash that kills or is suspected to have seriously injured someone.
• The requirement applies when the officer reasonably suspects the person was the driver and was at fault, that driver is not seriously hurt or in need of immediate medical attention, and the officer does not already have probable cause to demand a test under Colorado’s express consent law.
• The test is voluntary, and drivers keep the right to say no. Before asking, the officer must tell the driver in plain language: that they are being asked for a breath sample because they were driving a vehicle involved in a serious collision; that the test is voluntary; that neither the result nor a refusal is admissible in court; that evidence of intoxication may still be used to request further testing that is admissible, or to make an arrest; and that refusing does not affect the status of their driver’s license.
• No offer is required if an officer’s first contact with the driver comes more than two hours after the crash, or if the driver had already left before law enforcement learned that someone died or was seriously injured.

HB26-1318, The Liam Stewart School Zone Act: Standardizing Colorado school zones

Named for Liam Stewart, killed by a driver while biking to his middle school in October 2023. Until today, no law set how big a Colorado school zone had to be, and a zone could be shrunk without notice to kids, parents, drivers — or anyone. As Colorado’s kids head back to school, new protections take effect today:

• A school zone now means all roadways within at least 1,000 feet of a school property boundary.
• Existing school zones of at least 200 feet can stay exactly as they are. No existing zone shrinks. Any existing zone under 200 feet must be increased to at least 200.
• A local government may reduce a zone to no less than 200 feet, and only after holding a public hearing first. It may also expand a zone beyond 1,000 feet, and may bond with the local school board to pay for the added signage.
• Local governments may now use automated enforcement for moving violations inside a school zone or along a designated “safe route to school” — a term Colorado law defines for the first time as a roadway frequented by children walking and biking that a local government designates to make them safer.
• Colorado also gets a new “school street”: a stretch of roadway immediately next to a school that a local government may close to vehicles outright. State highways cannot be school streets, and a road that connects directly to one needs CDOT’s written approval.

HB26-1237, Transportation Safety Modifications: Bike lanes, snow tires, and the end of the word “accident”

• The traction law changed. Colorado’s passenger vehicle traction requirement is now chains or an approved alternate traction device, or tires with at least 3/16-inch tread carrying a mountain-snowflake, M&S, M+S or M/S symbol or an all-weather rating. Four-wheel and all-wheel drive no longer satisfy the requirement on their own.
• Stopping, standing or parking in a marked bike lane is now illegal statewide, closing the gap left by a patchwork of local rules. The only exceptions are the ones that apply anywhere else you can’t park: avoiding a conflict with traffic, or following the directions of an officer or a traffic control device.
• Colorado replaces “accident” with “crash” across roughly 90 statutes in 13 titles of the code, and defines “crash” in law for the first time in language that expressly covers vulnerable road users. Colorado is the second state in the nation to make the change in statute, after Nevada in 2015.
• The change is more than semantic. “Accident” suggests something nobody could have prevented. Nearly every crash on a Colorado road was preventable.

SB26-035, Dangerous Driving Penalties: Repeat speeders lose the checkbook defense

• Excessive speeding — 20 mph or more above the reasonable and prudent speed, or driving in excess of the maximum lawful speed of 75 mph — now carries added license points on repeat violations, on top of the points for the underlying ticket: two added for a second violation within 12 months, four for a third or subsequent violation within 24 months, and eight for a fifth or subsequent violation within five years.
• Driving 100 mph or faster adds four points on top of the underlying violation.
• Improper passing in a no-passing zone is now a six-point violation.
• At those same repeat thresholds, drivers lose the option to mail in a payment and be done with it. They get a summons and must appear in court.
• A no-passing zone is now defined by solid yellow line pavement markings as well as by signs, and CDOT will prioritize signage, within existing resources, on roads where crashes from illegal passing are climbing.

HB26-1127, Fatal Crash Reporting: Getting a clearer picture on impairment

• Upon CDOT’s request, coroners must electronically report all available toxicology results each quarter for every person who died that quarter as a result of a motor vehicle crash, including blood alcohol concentrations, drug screening panels, and the date, time and source of each sample. If results are not ready by the last business day of the quarter, the report follows in the next one.
• When someone dies within 30 days of a crash from injuries sustained in it, the investigating officer must file an amended crash report within five days of being notified of the death.

HB26-1076, Transportation Statutory Clean-Up: Thirty-one sections of clarity for drivers

• Commercial vehicles, including buses, must chain the number of drive wheels CDOT’s rules require and in the manner those rules prescribe, replacing the fixed counts written into statute.
• Colorado law defines toll evasion: failing to pay or avoiding a toll, or entering or exiting a toll lane anywhere other than a designated access point — including swerving between a toll lane and a general purpose lane, whether or not a toll was ever assessed.
• A driver’s license or state ID renewed within a year of expiring keeps its original expiration date, so long as the photo on file will still satisfy federal REAL ID requirements at the next renewal.
• The existing motorcycle safety training requirement for riders under 21 expressly covers endorsements, not just instruction permits. This confirms current practice rather than adding a new hurdle.
• The freight mobility and safety branch becomes a full Office of Freight Mobility and Safety, and the state transportation enterprise may carry liability insurance for passenger rail contracts.

Still to Come

SB26-072, effective Sept. 1, 2026: A felony for killing someone through criminally negligent driving

• Driving with criminal negligence in a way that proximately causes another person’s death can be charged as criminally negligent homicide, a class 5 felony.
• Between careless driving resulting in death, a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense, and vehicular homicide, a class 3 or class 4 felony, there was very little middle ground — and cases that plainly deserved more than a misdemeanor often got one anyway.
• The bill also repeals the separate class 1 misdemeanor that applied when a driver killed someone while using a mobile device. Those cases now run through the felony statute.
• A conviction triggers mandatory license revocation and counts toward habitual offender status. Where an officer has probable cause and a driver refuses testing, a blood test may be required.
• The law applies to offenses committed on or after Sept. 1.

HB26-1242, effective June 1, 2027: Closing the interlock loophole, including financial assistance

• A first-time impaired driving offender must hold an interlock-restricted license for nine consecutive months after reinstatement before becoming eligible for any other license, unless granted early removal of the device.
• Drivers revoked for refusing a test no longer wait two months before applying for early reinstatement with an interlock.
• A driver qualifies for financial assistance by showing enrollment in a public assistance program, income at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, or a state determination that available discretionary income makes the device impractical to afford.
• For those drivers, manufacturers must provide free standard installation, free removal on successful completion, and a discount of up to 50% on the monthly lease rate. Where the manufacturer determines the vehicle is high-end or electric, half the installation fee is covered rather than all of it.

“The laws going into effect today each ask Coloradans for something small — like a little more room, a little less speed, and a few more seconds of attention near a school. For them to be effective, drivers must take them seriously,” McKinley said. “Nobody ever regrets following a traffic safety law. Countless others have spent the rest of their lives regretting that they didn’t.”