Motorcycle Helmet and Lane-Splitting Laws in Nevada

Nevada makes helmets mandatory for every rider and passenger and bans lane splitting outright. Here's what the statutes require and how a helmet or lane-splitting violation can change a Nevada crash claim.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jun 3, 2026
6 min read

Motorcycle helmet and lane-splitting laws in Nevada

If you ride in Nevada, two rules shape almost every crash claim before you ever call an insurer: the state's all-ages helmet requirement and its ban on lane splitting. Both are written into the Nevada Revised Statutes, both have a fixed answer, and both can change how much fault a defense adjuster tries to pin on you. Here is what the law actually says, with the section numbers you can check yourself.

Every rider and passenger has to wear a helmet

Nevada is a universal-helmet state. Under NRS 486.231, when any motorcycle or moped is driven on a highway, the driver and passenger have to wear protective headgear securely fastened on the head, plus protective glasses, goggles, or a face shield.1 There is no age exemption and no exemption based on the size of the bike. The rule applies to a 16-year-old on a moped and a 60-year-old on a touring bike alike.1

The headgear has to meet standards adopted by the Nevada DMV, which follow the federal standard. Every street helmet sold in the United States must meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218, the performance standard NHTSA sets for motorcycle helmets.2 A legal helmet carries a DOT certification label. A "novelty" shell that does not meet FMVSS 218 will not satisfy NRS 486.231, even if it looks the part.

A few narrow exceptions exist. If your motorcycle has a transparent windscreen meeting the state standard, you do not have to add glasses or goggles.1 Riders in a parade authorized by a local government are excused from the gear requirement, and an enclosed-cab three-wheeler is treated differently.1 None of those touch the core rule for an ordinary rider on an ordinary road.

Breaking the helmet law is a civil infraction, not a crime. NRS 486.381 makes a violation of the motorcycle chapter a civil infraction unless a specific section says otherwise, and the helmet and lane rules do not.3

Whether the requirement works is not really in dispute. In 2023, only 12 percent of motorcyclists killed in Nevada were not wearing a helmet, based on known use, against a national figure of 35 percent.4 Across the country, 51 percent of riders killed in states without a universal law were unhelmeted, compared with 10 percent in states like Nevada that require helmets for everyone.4 Observed DOT-compliant helmet use ran 82.7 percent in universal-law states versus 65.9 percent elsewhere.5

Lane splitting is illegal, but two bikes can share a lane

This is where Nevada trips people up. NRS 486.351 says a rider, other than a police officer on duty, may not drive a motorcycle or moped between moving or stationary vehicles occupying adjacent traffic lanes.6 That is lane splitting, and it stays illegal in Nevada even when traffic is stopped dead on I-15. Lane filtering, the slow version riders do at red lights, is not carved out either.

The same statute bars passing another vehicle within the same lane.6 What it does allow is lane sharing. Two motorcycles may, with both riders' consent, ride no more than two abreast in a single lane.6 Side by side between two bikes is legal. Slipping between cars in neighboring lanes is not. Those two get confused constantly, and the difference matters after a crash.

A lane-splitting violation is also a civil infraction under NRS 486.381.3 The bigger cost usually is not the citation. It is what the maneuver does to your injury claim.

Handlebars, footrests, and eye protection

Two equipment rules catch riders who build or buy customized bikes. Handlebars cannot rise more than 6 inches above the top of the driver's shoulders when seated, under NRS 486.201.7 A motorcycle set up to carry a passenger has to have footrests fitted for that passenger, under NRS 486.181.8 Eye protection, covered above, rounds out the gear a Nevada trooper can pull you over for.

How a violation changes your injury claim

Nevada uses modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar. Under NRS 41.141, you can recover only if you are not more at fault than the party you are suing, and your award drops by your share of the blame.9 Cross 51 percent and you recover nothing. Fault is the whole ballgame, and a helmet or lane question is exactly where a defense insurer will try to move the number.

Seat belts and helmets are treated differently in Nevada, and the reason matters. Nevada bars the "seat belt defense" by statute: NRS 484D.495 says a person's failure to wear a safety belt may not be considered negligence or causation in a civil action.10 That protection is written for seat belts. No matching statute shields a motorcyclist who broke the helmet law, so an insurer has more room to argue that unhelmeted head injuries were partly the rider's own doing, and a jury weighs that under the comparative-negligence rule. Because Nevada already requires helmets for everyone, most injured riders were wearing one, which usually takes the argument off the table.

Lane splitting cuts the same way. If you were riding between lanes when a car moved into you, the driver can still be mostly at fault, but expect an argument that your illegal maneuver put you where you should not have been. Under NRS 41.141, if that argument pushes you past 50 percent, the case ends. This is a fault fight worth handling with a lawyer, and you can start from the directory at https://thatcarhitme.com/legal-directory.

The coverage and deadlines behind the claim

Nevada's minimum liability limits are low: 25/50/20, meaning $25,000 for injury to one person, $50,000 per crash, and $20,000 for property damage, under NRS 485.185.11 A serious motorcycle injury passes $25,000 fast, and the at-fault driver may carry nothing more. That is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters so much for riders. Nevada does not force you to buy UM/UIM, but every auto insurer has to offer it equal to your bodily-injury limits, and you can decline it only in writing, under NRS 687B.145.12 Nevada is not a no-fault state and does not sell PIP. Medical-payments coverage is optional, offered in amounts of at least $1,000.12

Two deadlines govern the paperwork. You have two years from the crash to sue for a bodily injury, under NRS 11.190(4)(e), and three years for damage to the motorcycle itself, under NRS 11.190(3)(c).13 If the police report matters to your claim, the state page on Nevada crash reports covers how to pull it: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-reports/nevada. If your bike lost market value even after a clean repair, that is a separate claim explained at https://thatcarhitme.com/diminished-value/nevada.

Nevada's motorcycle death numbers are getting worse

The stakes are not abstract. The Nevada Office of Traffic Safety's preliminary 2024 report counted 83 motorcyclist deaths, up from 65 the year before, a 28 percent jump, out of 419 traffic deaths statewide.14 Clark County went from 51 to 62 rider deaths, and Washoe County went from 8 to 13.14 Speeding and impairment led the causes.14 For scale, NHTSA put the 2023 motorcyclist fatality rate at 31.39 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, almost 28 times the rate for passenger-car occupants.15

None of that changes the law. It explains why Nevada keeps the helmet requirement universal and the lane-splitting ban firm.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.231, protective headgear, glasses, goggles or face shields. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  2. NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts: Motorcycles, 2023 Data (DOT HS 813 732), July 2025. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813732.pdf

  3. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.381, penalty for violations of the motorcycle chapter. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  4. NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts: Motorcycles, 2023 Data (DOT HS 813 732), unhelmeted motorcyclists killed by state. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813732.pdf

  5. NHTSA, Motorcycle Helmet Use in 2023 - Overall Results (DOT HS 813 634), September 2024. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813634.pdf

  6. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.351, unlawful passing and driving abreast. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  7. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.201, handlebar height. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  8. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.181, footrests for passengers. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  9. Nevada Revised Statutes 41.141, comparative negligence. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-041.html

  10. Nevada Revised Statutes 484D.495, safety belts. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484D.html

  11. Nevada Revised Statutes 485.185, required minimum insurance. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-485.html

  12. Nevada Revised Statutes 687B.145, uninsured and underinsured motorist and medical-payments coverage. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-687B.html

  13. Nevada Revised Statutes 11.190, limitation of actions. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-011.html

  14. Nevada Office of Traffic Safety, Department of Public Safety, Nevada Statewide Fatal Report, preliminary 2024. https://zerofatalitiesnv.com/app/uploads/2025/04/EOY-2023-2024-STATE-FATEL-REPORT-Preliminary.pdf

  15. NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts: Motorcycles, 2023 Data (DOT HS 813 732), fatality rate per 100 million VMT. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813732.pdf

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Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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