Traffic Violation Penalty Calculator

Two objects arrive with each citation: violation carries the type, speed_over_limit, and in_school_zone flag that determine the base penalty and modifiers, while driver contributes previous_violations for the repeat-offender rules. The date, location, and license_number fields are recorded but not used in any rule.

Offense type sets the baseline in a first-hit table over violation.type and violation.speed_over_limit. Speeding is graduated: > 30 over the limit is 'severe' with 4 points and a 300 base fine, > 15 is 'moderate' with 3 points and 150, and any lesser excess is 'minor' at 2 points and 75. Named offenses get fixed rows, 'dui' at the top with 6 points and 500, 'reckless_driving' at 5 points and 350, 'running_red_light' and 'driving_without_license' as 'moderate', and the empty catch-all prices unknown violation types as 'minor' with 1 point and 50.

Graduating speeding penalties by the margin over the limit is exactly how real fine schedules work, and placing DUI and reckless driving at the top of the point scale matches demerit systems everywhere, since points are meant to track crash risk rather than revenue. A nonzero default row is a deliberate safety net so an unrecognized offense still produces an enforceable minimum penalty instead of an error.

Context scales the baseline here: the table crosses assessment.severity with driver.previous_violations and violation.in_school_zone under a first hit policy. The harshest row, 'severe' with > 2 priors in a school zone, doubles the fine via assessment.base_fine * 2, multiplies points by 1.5, and is the only row that sets license_suspension_recommended to true. Below it, plain 'severe' cases take a 1.5x fine, 'moderate' repeat offenders 1.25x on both fine and points, a 'moderate' school-zone offense 1.2x, 'minor' with > 3 priors 1.1x, and the default row passes base_fine and base_points through untouched.

Each multiplier has a real-world counterpart: many jurisdictions double fines in school zones, repeat offenders face enhanced penalties under habitual-offender provisions, and license suspension is normally reserved for the combination of a serious offense and a bad record rather than any single factor. The strictly decreasing multiplier ladder keeps the table's first-hit ordering honest, the worst applicable enhancement always wins.

A small cleanup step applies round(assessment.final_fine) and round(assessment.final_points) before the risk stage. The 1.5x and 1.25x multipliers upstream can produce fractional values like 4.5 points, and citations must state whole-dollar fines and integer point assessments, so rounding here keeps the downstream >= 3 and >= 5 point comparisons and the printed penalty consistent.

Driver risk and the payment window come from crossing assessment.final_points with severity, first hit wins. A 'severe' violation carrying >= 5 points is the only 'high' risk outcome; >= 3 points yields 'medium' at any severity; and the point-agnostic rows at the bottom default to 'low', including a final empty catch-all. Deadlines run opposite to risk: every 'severe' row gets 15 days to pay, 'moderate' rows 30, and 'minor' or unmatched rows 45.

Using the points actually assessed, after enhancement, rather than the base offense makes the risk label reflect the full circumstances of the case. Shorter deadlines for serious violations are a sensible collections policy, keeping high-risk drivers from sitting on unpaid penalties, while the 45-day window for minor infractions mirrors the more lenient response periods typical for ordinary citations.