This is Bud’s report from Wednesday, January 27.
Senator Scott Surovell led off the Senate Transportation Committee proceedings today with SB663, the Vulnerable Road User bill. After a good bit of discussion, where one of the key points made was that the Class I Misdemeanor, plus having their license suspended, that was provided if someone was guilty of this careless driving and a road user was injured or killed, was more severe than that contained in the Code section that requires a motorist to Move Over when there is an incident being handled by a law enforcement officer.
Getting the sense that the Committee felt that this was a good idea, but with the punishment called for out of proportion to that in other sections of the Code, it was moved to Pass the Bill By for the Year and refer it to the Commission on Transportation Accountability for them to report back with a recommendation at the 2017 Session. This motion was passed 10 to 2 with one Senator absent, and only Deeds & Favola voting against. (Note: an identical bill, HB1173, is working its way through the House.)
Later in the session, Senator Chap Petersen presented SB 117, the Dooring bill which requires drivers to wait for a reasonable opportunity to open their vehicle door on the side adjacent to moving traffic. After VBF, the Transit Assn., and the Motorcycling Assn. spoke in favor of the bill, the committee picked at it a bit, offering some minor suggestions as to why “school guards” should be exempted from the provisions of the bill, and preferring to see No “driver” (rather than No “person”) shall open the door etc. I was bemused at this, since the bill had started out last year as No “driver” only to be changed to No “person” when someone on the committee noted that it would be possible for a passenger in the back seat to open their door into moving traffic. In any event, the patron accepted these suggestions as amendments, following which the bill was reported out by a 10-2 vote, with one Senator absent and only Chairman Carrico (keeping his long standing record intact of NEVER voting for one of our Bicycling Safety bills) and Senator Newman (last year’s Chairman) voting against. Now its on to the Senate floor, where it would be helpful for everyone to alert their Senators to be on the lookout for, and support, SB117 as it comes to the floor shortly.
Update: the Senate passed SB117 in a 24-16 vote on Tuesday, 2/20.
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