The fines new drivers in Latvia actually get: where money and points go

First-year fines are almost never about recklessness. More often they are gaps in habits: eyes that have not yet learned to look for zone signs, a hand that reaches for the phone at a traffic light, an insurance policy nobody remembered. The catch is that for a driver with under two years' experience, every violation costs more: you pay in two currencies — euros and demerit points — and the driving ban arrives for you at 10 points, not 16. Let's walk through the violations new drivers actually commit, and the habits that close them.

Speeding: small numbers, big relative excess

The penalty ladder for speeding in the Road Traffic Law (Section 55) starts gently: up to 10 km/h over — a warning; 11–20 km/h — a warning or a fine from 20 € (up to 40 € in built-up areas); 21–30 km/h — 40–80 € depending on where. From there the amounts climb fast: 31–40 km/h is already 80–160 €, licence bans begin at 51 km/h over, and the top of the ladder reaches 2000 € with revocation for up to three years.

The novice trap is not the highway — it is the 30 km/h zones. Driving 50 where 30 is allowed feels like "normal city speed", but legally it is 20 km/h over, and 55 already lands in the interval where demerit points start accumulating too. In zones, a small absolute speed produces a large relative excess. How the zonal sign works and why an intersection does not cancel it, I covered in the article on Riga's 30 km/h zones.

One more detail: if a camera records the excess without stopping the car, the decision goes to the owner — for the minimum of that interval. A letter two weeks after the trip is the classic first fine of a new driver.

The habit: entering an unfamiliar district, look for signs first — the ordinary "30" and the zonal one. And check your speed against the speedometer, not the traffic around you: the flow in a zone is often speeding.

Phone in hand: 25–100 € and one point

Using a phone, tablet or other smart device while the vehicle is moving brings a warning or a fine of 25–100 € plus one demerit point. Hands-free mode and a mount are allowed; the fine is specifically for the device in your hand.

Why is this a novice trap? Because the "glance at the screen" habit comes from pedestrian life, while a moving car covers dozens of metres blind in a couple of seconds of looking down. And the police increasingly record this violation with cameras, not only by stopping you.

The habit: route set in the navigator before you pull away, phone in the mount, calls only hands-free. Need to type a message — stop where stopping is allowed.

Seat belts: the "cheapest" fine with the highest price

An unbelted driver gets a warning or a fine of 30–70 €. The same range applies if your passenger is unbelted — that one is on the driver. The passenger themselves pays their own 15 €.

New drivers skip the belt not out of protest but out of hurry: pre-drive nerves, "it's just two blocks". Yet short trips around the neighbourhood are statistically among the most crash-prone.

The habit: belt on before the key turns. Passengers belted — also before. It is your fine and your responsibility.

Pedestrian crossings: a fine plus points

Failing to give way to a pedestrian who is crossing on a crossing, or finishing the crossing, brings a fine and demerit points (the exact amounts have changed over the years — check the current wording on likumi.lv). The typical novice cause: the gaze is still "short", glued to the car ahead, so the crossing gets scanned too late — especially an uncontrolled one, especially in the dark.

The habit: the moment you see a crossing sign, ease off and look at the edges of the road, not at the crossing itself: the pedestrian who is only approaching it is exactly your case. In lessons, this gaze transfer is precisely what I train.

Parking: small amounts that repeat

Fines for stopping and parking violations are the "smallest" on this list — usually a few tens of euros. The problem is different: they come in series. Whoever has not learned to read supplementary plates and markings collects them in batches — the pavement, a sign's zone of effect, closer than five metres to a crossing. Add possible towing, and that is a different kind of money.

The habit: before leaving the car, one deliberate visual loop: sign, zone plate, markings, distance to the crossing and the junction. Ten seconds against yet another ticket.

OCTA: the policy expires silently

A lapsed OCTA policy — Latvia's compulsory third-party motor insurance — is a second-year classic, once your own car appears. The policy does not renew itself, and the fine is tangible: 85–120 € for the driver, from 350 € for the owner — and a camera records the missing policy on every pass, with known cases of several decisions arriving in a single day. The main risk is not even the fine: if you cause a crash without OCTA, the Motor Insurers' Bureau (LTAB) compensates the victims — and then recovers the full sum from you.

The habit: auto-renewal with your insurer, or a calendar reminder a week before the policy ends. Checking the status takes a minute on ltab.lv. How much OCTA takes out of a car's annual budget, I calculated in the article on car ownership costs in Latvia.

Why all of this costs you more: the points

Now the common denominator. Most of the violations above bring not only a fine but also points, and their ladder goes: 4 points — a warning from CSDD (the Road Traffic Safety Directorate), 8 — a referral to safe-driving courses, 12 — a referral to exams. An experienced driver faces a driving ban at 16 points; you, with under two years' experience, already at 10. The ban lasts a year, and afterwards both the theory and the driving exam must be passed at CSDD again. Points expire after two years, after five for the heaviest offences.

So the novice arithmetic is simple: two or three "ordinary" violations with points, and you are halfway to a ban that costs incomparably more than any fine in euros. The other particularities of the first two years — including the 0.2‰ alcohol limit instead of 0.5‰ — I covered in the article on your first two years with a licence.

Habits instead of fear

This information is current as of July 2026; check the exact amounts and the law's wording on likumi.lv and csdd.lv. But the point is not the amounts. Every item on this list is closed by one concrete habit: eyes on the signs, phone in the mount, belt before the start, easing off at crossings, a visual loop before parking, a policy reminder. If you feel one of these habits never quite settled in after driving school, it can be put in place in one or two lessons — calmly, on your usual routes.