To the best of our knowledge the traffic ticket your son received for an HOV violation will be placed on his Washington State driver's license if he is convicted of the offense. Once it is placed on his WA motor vehicle record (MVR) his insurance company, State Farm, would be able see this moving violation the next time they pulled his driving record.

The WA driver's manual states that HOV stands for “High Occupancy Vehicles” and indicates lanes reserved for vehicles with more than one person in them. Signs say how many people must be in the vehicle, as well as the days and hours to which it applies. For example, “HOV 3” means there must be at least three people in the vehicle.

Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.61.165 is the part of Washington state law that speaks about HOV or carpool lanes. Here it states that regulations authorizing such exclusive or preferential use of a highway facility may be declared to be effective at all times or at specified times of day or on specified days. Violation of a restriction of highway usage prescribed by the appropriate authority under this section is a traffic infraction.

The WA Department of Licensing notes that they keep a record of license applications, collisions, traffic infractions, convictions for motor vehicle violations, collision involvement, and Failure-to-Appear notices for every driver in the state. For a $10 fee, you can obtain a copy of your record. The DOL will also release your driving record to an insurance carrier, an employer, and some volunteer organizations where you provide transportation. A copy of the record is referred to as an Abstract of Driving Record (ADR).

Since a HOV offense is considered a traffic infraction and the WA DOL records infractions on your abstract than your son's conviction for this carpool / HOV violation should be put on his ADR for his insurance company to see. The DOL will not directly report it to the insurance company but the insurer will find out about the violation once it is placed on your son's driving record and they next pull his MVR.

Whether his insurance company will raise his rates at all due to this ticket will be up to their rating system. They may find this minor and not raise his rates but may take away a good driver discount. For him to find out how this traffic ticket will affect his premiums he should contact his State Farm insurance agent.

If your son's rates do increase due to his driving record he should shop around to see if he can get lower car insurance rates elsewhere. He can comparison shop for auto insurance here.