In short
Article 5.06 of the Vehicles and Traffic Act strictly prohibits competition races, speed and acceleration contests and stunts or manoeuvres such as wheelies, stoppies, burnouts or any similar activity on state and municipal highways, where not authorised by the Secretary. It is a misdemeanour with a fixed fine of five thousand dollars and six months’ licence suspension, the vehicle is seized to begin confiscation under Act 119-2011, and anyone helping or inciting another commits a three-thousand-dollar administrative offence. If bodily harm is caused it is a fixed three years; if grave bodily harm, eight years, reducible to three with mitigating circumstances. Article 5.07 punishes driving imprudently or negligently with disregard for safety: a fine of five hundred to one thousand dollars, or one thousand to two thousand where harm is caused to a road worker or to public safety personnel attending an accident. If it causes an injury requiring hospitalisation it is three years, five if the driver flees. If it causes death it is three years, eight where they were driving recklessly, and fifteen if they flee.
What is it?
They are the two articles of Chapter V of Act 22-2000 that punish not speed itself but the manner of driving: racing or performing stunts in the street, and driving with disregard for the safety of persons or property. The penalties rise in tiers according to what is caused, and in both cases there are felony tiers.
Who can do it?
Article 5.06 applies to races, contests and manoeuvres on Puerto Rico’s state and municipal highways where not authorised by the Secretary, and also to anyone who helps or incites another to do so. Article 5.07 applies to anyone who drives a vehicle imprudently or negligently, with disregard for the safety of persons or property.
Requirements
- For the activity to be lawful under Article 5.06 it would have to be authorised by the Secretary: the prohibition covers races, contests and manoeuvres “where these are not authorised by the Secretary”. The Act publishes no procedure for that authorisation and we do not invent one here.Verified against the official source
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Cost
Step by step
Step 1: What exactly is prohibited, wheelies included
Article 5.06(A) is explicit: “Competition races, speed contests and acceleration contests and stunts or manoeuvres, such as ‘wheelies’, ‘stoppies’, ‘burnouts’ or any similar activity on Puerto Rico’s state and municipal highways are strictly prohibited where these are not authorised by the Secretary”. The Act names the manoeuvres by their common names, and the clause “or any similar activity” closes the list by analogy.
Step 2: Five thousand dollars, six months, and the car goes
The sanction in subsection (A) has three pieces. A misdemeanour with “a fixed fine of five thousand (5,000) dollars”, suspension of the driving licence for six months, and this: “Any vehicle used in contravention of this Article’s provisions shall be seized by law-enforcement officers, for investigation purposes and to begin the confiscation process under the provisions of Act 119-2011”. Subsection (C) repeats it in the imperative: “In all cases under this Article confiscation of the motor vehicles used to violate such provisions shall proceed”. We did not read that Act 119-2011.
Step 3: Three thousand dollars for helping or inciting
The Act does not stop with the driver. The same subsection (A) says “anyone who helps or incites another to violate this Article’s provisions commits an administrative offence and shall be fined three thousand (3,000) dollars”. Whoever organises, whoever blocks the street, whoever films and eggs it on: the Act reaches them by that route.
Step 4: The second time: possible jail and a year without a licence
Subsection (B) says anyone who, having been previously convicted of violating this article, is convicted again “shall be punished with a fine of five thousand (5,000) dollars, or imprisonment of not more than six (6) months, or both at the court’s discretion. In addition, their driving licence shall be revoked for a term of one (1) year”.
Step 5: If someone is hurt: three years, or eight
Subsection (D) escalates. Anyone violating the article who thereby causes bodily harm to another “commits a misdemeanour and, on conviction, shall be punished with a fixed term of three (3) years’ imprisonment”. If they cause grave bodily harm to a human being, “they shall be guilty of a felony and, on conviction, punished with a fixed term of eight (8) years’ imprisonment”, and “where mitigating circumstances exist, the penalty may be reduced to a minimum of three (3) years”. This article carries its own definition: grave bodily harm shall be “that resulting in mutilation, physical or mental incapacity, whether partial or total, temporary or permanent, or that severely affects a person’s physiological or mental functioning”.
Step 6: Reckless driving: five hundred to two thousand dollars
Article 5.07(A) punishes as a misdemeanour anyone who drives a vehicle “imprudently or negligently, with disregard for the safety of persons or property”, with a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars. And it doubles it — not less than one thousand nor more than two thousand — where that driving causes harm to two specific figures: anyone carrying out reconstruction, widening, repaving, maintenance or related work on an expressway, highway, avenue, street, sidewalk or other public road open to traffic; and any member or employee of a public safety services agency attending a traffic accident or giving any emergency service.
Step 7: Recidivism, and the three-year clock
The same subsection (A) says that on a second and subsequent conviction the penalty shall be a fine of not less than one thousand nor more than five thousand dollars, or imprisonment of not more than six months, or both at the court’s discretion; and that the Secretary shall also suspend every licence for three months, and “where a person is convicted on three (3) or more occasions, their driving licence shall be revoked permanently”. But it closes with a rule in the driver’s favour: “After three (3) years have passed from a conviction under this section’s provisions, it shall not be taken into consideration for subsequent convictions”.
Step 8: Serious injury: three years, and five if you flee
Article 5.07(B) says anyone driving imprudently or negligently who causes another “a bodily injury requiring hospitalisation, prolonged treatment or generating permanent damage or mutilating injuries commits a misdemeanour with a fixed term of three (3) years’ imprisonment”, and the Secretary shall revoke every driving permit or privilege for the same term. And it adds the aggravator for fleeing: if in those same circumstances they “flee, they commit a felony with a fixed term of (5) years’ imprisonment” and the same revocation, and “this term of imprisonment must be served consecutively with any other term of imprisonment for the same events”.
Step 9: Death: three, eight or fifteen years
Article 5.07(C) has three tiers. Anyone driving imprudently or negligently who causes another’s death “commits a felony with a penalty of three (3) years’ imprisonment”. If they were driving “recklessly, with clear disregard for safety”, and cause death, “they commit a felony with a fixed term of eight (8) years’ imprisonment and a fine of five thousand (5,000) dollars”. And if they cause death and flee, “they commit a felony with a fixed term of fifteen (15) years’ imprisonment and a fixed fine not exceeding ten thousand (10,000) dollars”, with revocation of every driving privilege for five years counted from completion of the sentence, and the prison term served consecutively with any other for the same events.
Step 10: And the second time, twenty years
Article 5.07(D) closes: on a second conviction under subsections (B) or (C), “the fine shall be fifteen thousand (15,000) dollars, with a fixed term of twenty (20) years’ imprisonment where Article 4.01 of this Act was breached in both convictions, and the Secretary shall permanently revoke the licence, or driving permit, and every driving privilege granted”. Article 4.01 is the duty to stop after an accident, which this library covers in its own guide.
Where to do it
The seizure of the vehicle is carried out by law-enforcement officers; the criminal case is brought by the Ministerio Público before the Court of First Instance. Confiscation is governed by Act 119-2011 and by the regulation the Secretary must adopt under it. Suspension and revocation of the licence are carried out by the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
What we did not read and therefore do not publish. Act 22-2000 runs to 227 pages and we did not read all of it: for this guide we read Articles 5.06 and 5.07, and nothing else. We did not read Act 119-2011, the Uniform Confiscations Act, which governs how a confiscation is challenged; or the confiscation regulation Article 5.06(C) directs the Secretary to adopt; or Article 4.01, referred to by Article 5.07(D) and covered by another guide in this library from its own reading. A note on the text: the compilation prints twice the sentence fining three thousand dollars anyone who helps or incites — once inside subsection (A) and once as its own paragraph; we report it once. And another: Article 5.06(D) carries its own definition of grave bodily harm, shorter than the Chapter VII one, so we quote this article’s and not the other. Cost goes unverified: the figures are penalties. So does processing time.
Common mistakes
- Believing a wheelie is a traffic infraction: Article 5.06 treats it as a misdemeanour with a fixed five-thousand-dollar fine.
- Thinking only organised racing is pursued: the Act also names stoppies, burnouts and “any similar activity”.
- Assuming confiscation is discretionary: subsection (C) says it shall proceed in all cases.
- Believing watching costs nothing: helping or inciting is a three-thousand-dollar administrative offence.
- Ignoring the suspension: six months of licence the first time and a year on recidivism.
- Confusing the two definitions of grave bodily harm: Article 5.06(D) carries its own, different from Chapter VII’s.
- Thinking reckless driving is a cheap ticket: it is five hundred to a thousand dollars, and a thousand to two thousand if you harm a road worker or emergency personnel.
- Not knowing that on a third negligence conviction the licence is revoked permanently.
- Forgetting the three-year clock: a conviction under Article 5.07 stops counting for subsequent convictions after three years.
- Underestimating fleeing: it turns three years into five where there is serious injury, and eight into fifteen where there is death.
- Believing the penalties run concurrently: the Act makes them consecutive with any other for the same events.
Frequently asked questions
What is the penalty for wheelies in the street?
Article 5.06(A) treats it as a misdemeanour with a fixed five-thousand-dollar fine and six months’ licence suspension, and the vehicle is seized to begin the confiscation process under Act 119-2011.
Am I fined for watching or filming a race?
Article 5.06(A) says anyone who helps or incites another to violate its provisions commits an administrative offence with a three-thousand-dollar fine.
What is the penalty for causing death by reckless driving?
Article 5.07(C) sets three years for causing death by imprudent or negligent driving; a fixed eight years and five thousand dollars where they drove recklessly with clear disregard for safety; and a fixed fifteen years with a fine of up to ten thousand dollars if they also flee.
Does a negligence conviction count forever?
No. Article 5.07(A) says that after three years have passed from a conviction under that section, it shall not be taken into consideration for subsequent convictions.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)
DTOP
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
September 1, 2026
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Speed limits
Twenty-five urban, forty-five rural, fifteen in a school zone. A hundred dollars plus ten per mile over — and driving too slowly is fined too.
What to do after a crash
Stopping is mandatory and failing to revokes your licence. There are four hours to notify the Police if they did not investigate on scene.
Penalties for drink driving
A $500 fine the first time, jail from the second, licence revoked indefinitely on the third and vehicle confiscation for repeat offenders.
Drink driving that harms someone
Three years for bodily harm, five for grave bodily harm and a fixed fifteen if it causes death, with the licence suspended from one to seven years.
ATVs and scooters on public roads
They may not travel paved roads: a misdemeanour with a thousand-dollar fine, up to five thousand, and the vehicle shall be confiscated.
A work accident caused by a third party
If a third party caused your work injury you can claim damages, but not before 90 days from when the Fund’s resolution became final, and you have one year to do it.