Quick answer: Following too closely in Maryland (Transp. § 21-310) is a 2-point violation with a $110 preset fine — or 3 points and $150 if it contributed to an accident. But the fine is the smallest part. Paying the ticket is a guilty plea, and after a rear-end crash that admission can wreck your own injury claim under Maryland’s contributory negligence rule. This is a charge worth fighting, not paying.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland traffic cases — including the tailgating tickets that quietly ride along with a fender-bender. This page goes deep on three things: what the charge actually costs, why it turns dangerous the moment there’s a collision, and how these cases are beaten. For a plain-English primer, see the following-too-closely explainer; for how I handle the case start to finish, see the following-too-closely lawyer page.
What a Following Too Closely Ticket Costs in Maryland
The penalties are set by statute and the point values are fixed. The preset fines below come from the District Court’s fine schedule; the point values from Transp. § 16-402. The difference between a clean tailgating ticket and one tied to a crash is one point and forty dollars — but, as you’ll see, that “contributing to an accident” finding is the whole ballgame.
| Charge (§ 21-310) | Points | Preset fine | Fine if you go to court |
|---|---|---|---|
| Following too closely — no accident | 2 | $110 | Up to $500 |
| Following too closely — contributed to an accident | 3 | $150 | Up to $500 |
| Truck, tow, or caravan failing to leave passing space (§ 21-310(b),(c),(e)) | 2 | $90 | Up to $500 |
The points matter more than the dollars. Under Transp. § 16-404, 3 points brings a warning letter, 5 triggers a required driver-improvement program, 8 suspends your license, and 12 revokes it. Two points here, two points there, and one bad year later a routine tailgating conviction is the one that tips you over a threshold. Your insurer, meanwhile, sees the conviction and prices it in long after the fine is forgotten — the Maryland point system explains how the tiers stack.
It is not “just $110.” Paying the preset fine is a guilty plea and puts a conviction on your record. Requesting a waiver hearing or a trial keeps a non-conviction disposition on the table — including probation before judgment under Crim. Proc. § 6-220 — and both are gone the instant you pay. A hearing isn’t free: a judge can raise the fine up to $500. But that’s usually a trade worth making, because a conviction costs far more than the ticket.
Why This Ticket Is So Dangerous After a Crash
If your tailgating ticket came out of a rear-end collision, do not pay it. Here’s the mechanism, and it’s brutal. Maryland is one of a handful of states that still applies pure contributory negligence: if you are found even 1% at fault for a crash, you recover nothing from the other driver — not a reduced amount, nothing. No medical bills, no lost wages, no vehicle.
Now look at what paying the citation is. It’s a guilty plea to following too closely in the incident that caused the wreck — a signed, public admission of fault. The other driver’s insurance adjuster pulls court records as a matter of routine, and you will have handed them the exact fact they need to deny your claim, often before you’ve finished seeing a doctor. People pay these tickets to make them disappear quickly; it is frequently the most expensive thing they do all year. The same trap runs through any traffic ticket you get after a Maryland car accident.
It cuts the other way too. Maryland recognizes a practical presumption that the driver who rear-ends someone was following too closely — which is precisely why officers hand out this charge after almost every rear-end call, even at parking-lot speeds. A conviction hardens that presumption into a fact the civil case is built on. Beat or reduce the traffic charge and you pull the foundation out from under the fault argument before the insurance fight even starts. That’s why the criminal citation and the civil claim have to be handled as one problem, not two.
The Defenses That Actually Work
Following too closely is one of the most defensible charges on the books, because § 21-310 contains no number. There’s no two-second rule, no car-length rule, no measured distance — only whether you were “reasonable and prudent” given the speed, traffic, and road conditions. That makes it easy for an officer to allege and genuinely hard for the State to prove. The angles I use:
- The standard is an opinion, not a measurement. How far back were you, exactly? From what angle did the officer judge it, at what distance, for how long? Cross-examination on those questions rarely produces crisp answers.
- The officer usually didn’t see the following distance. When the charge grows out of a collision, the officer arrived afterward and is reconstructing events from damage and two conflicting stories. He never witnessed the gap he’s testifying about.
- “Contributing to the accident” is a separate finding. Even if you were close, whether that closeness caused the crash is a distinct question — and it’s the line between 2 points and 3, and between a survivable ticket and a civil disaster.
- The other driver’s conduct is built into the statute. A sudden stop, a last-second lane change, or missing brake lights isn’t an outside excuse — § 21-310 expressly requires “due regard for the speed of the other vehicle,” so their behavior is part of the legal standard itself.
- Road and mechanical conditions. Rain, ice, sun glare, a defect in your brakes, or debris in the lane can all bear on what a reasonable distance was — or on whether the gap you kept was in fact adequate.
- It’s usually an add-on charge. Officers stack this on top of a speeding or unsafe-lane-change citation, which means it’s often the count the State cares least about — and the one most available to be dropped in negotiation.
- Preserve the right to make the officer appear. The citation offers a “guilty with an explanation” hearing that sounds reasonable but isn’t — under § 26-204(b)(2)(ii) it waives your trial of the facts and any right to compel the officer’s appearance. Every defense above depends on questioning that officer, so request a trial, not the waiver hearing. See payable versus must-appear citations for how those choices work.
When Tailgating Turns Into Something Worse
Aggressive driving. Following too closely is one of the 19 offenses on the closed list in Transp. § 21-901.2. Commit three of them in a single, continuous stretch of driving and you’re facing an aggressive driving charge — 5 points and a fine up to $1,000. Because tailgating is almost always stacked with other counts, that risk is real, not theoretical.
If you hold a CDL. Following too closely is a federal “serious traffic violation” under 49 C.F.R. § 383.51. A second serious violation within three years is a 60-day disqualification; a third is 120 days. Two tickets you’d shrug off as a car driver can put a commercial driver out of work for two months, so commercial drivers should never simply pay one. All of these are moving violations worth understanding together in the moving violations hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
The preset fine is $110 and it carries 2 points. If it contributed to an accident, it is 3 points and a $150 fine. At a waiver hearing or trial a judge can raise the fine up to $500.
No. Paying is a guilty plea and creates a conviction. After a crash that admission can be used by the other driver’s insurer, and under Maryland’s contributory negligence rule any fault on your part can bar your own injury claim entirely.
Often. The statute sets no fixed distance, so the case rests on an officer’s opinion that is frequently formed after the collision. Because the charge is usually added onto another citation, it is also one prosecutors will drop in negotiation.
Before You Pay It, Talk to Me
If this ticket came out of a collision, call before you do anything with it — before you pay, and before you speak to the other driver’s insurer. The call is free, and I’ll tell you straight whether the charge is worth fighting and how it fits with any injury claim.
Toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español. More on how I defend Maryland traffic charges.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Transp. § 21-310, § 16-402, § 16-404, § 21-901.2, § 26-204; Crim. Proc. § 6-220; 49 C.F.R. § 383.51. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.