RICHMOND, Va.- No more Southern hospitality in Virginia.

According to various news accounts, Virginia has apparently become the worst place in the country to commit a serious traffic violation.

To raise money for road projects, the state will now impose on residents who commit severe driving infractions a huge civil penalty, ranging as high as $3,000, in addition to existing fines and court costs.

For example, the civil penalty for going 20 miles an hour or more over the speed limit, a violation defined by the state as reckless driving, will be $1,050. First-time drunken drivers will face a civil penalty of $2,250. In both cases, judges can also continue to impose fines of as much as $2,500, plus court costs.

The offenders can pay the penalties in three installments over 26 months, but failure to pay will cost them their licenses.

And, therell be no outwitting the police by using radar detectors. Virginia and the neighboring District of Columbia ban radar detectors in passenger vehicles.

The new traffic penalties are expected to raise $65 million a year and are part of an effort to improve state roads without a tax increase. Virginia had an estimated shortfall of more than $500 million in its transportation budget in the last fiscal year.

New York and New Jersey have similar surcharges for certain traffic violations, with the revenue going to state transportation funds, and Delaware legislators introduced a like measure in June. But none have penalties as large as those in Virginia.

A spokesman for the National Motorists Association calls the new fines 'ridiculous.' He notes that the legislation creating the penalties says its purpose is to generate revenue. 'Its essentially a tax on drivers and has nothing to do with safety. There is no evidence that increasing fines increases safety,' he told one newspaper.

But Lon Anderson, director of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic, disagrees.

'We wish the fines didnt have to be so steep,' said Anderson, 'but the issue was, should we tax all motorists, through something like the gas tax, or should we tax just the worst drivers? The legislators chose the latter, and we agree with that decision. These arent minor traffic violations. You really have to do something severe to be fined.'

You also have to be a Virginian. The legislature opted not to apply the new penalties to out-of-state drivers, reasoning that enforcement would be too hard. So, bus drivers passing through Virginia are not subject to the new fines, but local operators are.

The civil-penalties initiative is among a package of new traffic safety measures that took effect in the state this month. In another, Virginia is renewing a program that allows local governments to set up cameras to catch drivers who run red lights.