The Fairfax County Police Department recently shared body camera footage of a traffic stop to make a point about a law plenty of drivers get wrong. In Virginia, you have to wear a helmet to drive a Polaris Slingshot, even though it has a steering wheel and seatbelts and feels a lot more like a car than a motorcycle.
The stop happened on April 15. An officer pulled over a man driving a Slingshot, and pretty quickly it turned into a back-and-forth over whether he actually needed a helmet. The driver didn’t think so, but the officer didn’t budge, because Virginia law was on his side.
Virginia classifies the Slingshot as an “autocycle.” That means you can drive one with a regular driver’s license, no motorcycle endorsement required, the same as you would a car. However, you’re still required to wear a helmet…