The Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner notes that in WA insurance companies calculate auto insurance rates by starting with a dollar amount (base rate). Your base rate is adjusted according to certain factors such as your age, sex, marital status, driving pattern, claims history, geographical area, credit history and the make, model and year of your vehicle.

Insurance companies in Washington may charge you more if you have been involved in an accident or have been convicted of one or more traffic violations. This is called a surcharge. Also, the more claims you file, the more likely your car insurance rates will increase.

The WA Department of Licensing (DOL) states that most convictions and violations, forfeitures of bail, or court findings stating an infraction was committed is kept on your abstract of your Washington driving record for 5 years from conviction or adjudication date.

The WA DOL also notes that collisions (accidents) are placed on a driver's MVR. The notation for an accident shows involvement, not fault, number of vehicles involved, whether they were legally parked or moving, whether the vehicles were occupied at the time of the collision, and whether the collision resulted in any injury or fatality. For non-commercial vehicles these are kept on your driving record for 5 years from collision date. For commercial vehicles this incidents are kept for 10 years from collision date.

Since the insurance regulator for Washington State does not give any information that suggests the state has a restriction then it will be up to the individual insurance companies' guidelines and their rating system to determine how long the traffic ticket and accident can affect your rates. Normally an insurer will rate you on moving violations and accidents for a period of 3, 5 or 7 years.

As you can see from the information above the WA DOL the ticket and the accident will both stay on your driving record for 5 years so it likely will be 3 or 5 years that your insurer will rate you on these incidents. To find from your current insurance company and find out how long the speeding ticket and accident (plus claims if there were ones made) can affect your rates contact your agent.

You can read our article What a Traffic Ticket can Truly Cost You for more information on this topic. If your insurance rates do rise due to the speeding citation and accident then you can shop around for low cost car insurance here with us.