Legislative Hearing To Address Distracted Driving
The State Capitol is the place to be on Thursday if you want to offer input on a bill to fight distracted driving.
Distracted driving will be addressed at a hearing at the Colorado Legislature on Thursday this week, so if you want to let your elected representatives know how you feel about the folks on cellphones trying to kill us this is your chance. We’re talking about Senate Bill 12. It will be in room 352.
Stump, the ABATE of Colorado legislative liaison, brought us up to date last week at the District 17 meeting. He’s encouraging as many riders as possible to show up and make it clear we care about this. Representatives from the bicycling community as well as the walkers community (yes, there is such a thing) will be there in support as well. If you’re coming aim to get there around 9:30 a.m. I’ll be there.
A similar bill was introduced last session but because it was introduced by a Democrat the Senate Republicans killed it. This sort of thing goes on all the time, in both directions. Maybe you want to tell your representatives to vote on the basis of whether a bill is good for Colorado, not their party. Anyway, Democrats now control both houses of the legislature so there is some hope this will pass this year.
It is considered to be a better bill this year as well. In addition to a fine, using your cellphone would now also cost you points on your license. The bill does allow for you to use your phone hands-free, permitting you to tap it to activate the voice-activation function if necessary. You can’t cruise along at highway speed hitting the numbers dialing.
Now, lest anyone think this will immediately stop everyone from texting while driving, be aware that to be stopped for this violation you would have to be actually observed by a police officer doing the no-no. Still, I see people dialing and texting; surely police officers see the same thing from time to time. At least some people will have it made clear to them that this is not acceptable.
Stump spoke with all the members on the Senate transportation committee to see how they expect to vote. Only one said they would definitely vote for it, most said they will make up their minds based on what the bill says and what the testimony is, and one said he would definitely vote against it.
I asked if he gave a reason why and Stump said he told him that addressing cellphones only just hits on part of the problem. OK, so you’re not willing to at least start chipping away at the problem? Do you have an all-encompassing proposal?
Personally, I suspect any time people make those kind of weak excuses the real reason is that they themselves are guilty of this behavior and figure “I’m a safe driver, why should I be subject to penalty for something that’s perfectly safe?” Yeah, you can text and drive safely, right up until the point when you don’t, and have that collision. By then it’s too late for the motorcyclist or bicyclist or pedestrian you just hit.
So if you care about this issue, come on down on Thursday. See you there?
Biker Quote for Today
Half of them are out to get you, the other half don’t see you. — Bernie Peterson
Tags: distracted driving
