Virginia Legislature thinks up new laws to keep us safe.
22. February 2008 by admin.
Driving Safety
Fees aren’t the only way the General Assembly tries to get at abusive drivers.
Virginia’s infamous abusive driver fees may have captured most of the public’s attention last summer but General Assembly members submit dozens of bills aimed at curbing bad driving each year.State legislators drafted about 75 bills related to driver safety in 2008. About one-third asked for the direct repeal of the state abusive drivers fees – a series of large fines imposed on those convicted of traffic violations that drew the collective ire of the public last year. But some 50 bills sought to impose stiffer fines or penalties for other traffic safety laws.Legislators have proposed stiffer punishments for those driving without a license, more sweeping punishment for those convicted of drunk driving and tighter restrictions on teenage drivers. Some local representatives said driving safety continues to be a problem, particularly in
Northern Virginia where congestion is so much greater than in other parts of the state.”There are always a lot of those bills because young people keep on killing themselves. … There are three roadside memorials between my house in Fairfax Station and my office in Springfield,” said Del. Dave Albo (R-42), who said about 42 people are injured on
Northern Virginia’s roads every day.”People have no idea when they get into their car how dangerous it is. The odds of getting killed in a dark alley at night are much smaller than the odds of getting hurt on a
Northern Virginia roadway,” added Albo. The Republican was the architect of the abusive driver fees and specializes in traffic court law.In 2006, nearly 1,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in
Virginia and the commonwealth is in the middle of the pack when it comes to road and driver safety laws, according to Judie Stone, president of the Advocates for Highway Safety.In a report released Feb. 18, Stone’s organization rated
Virginia, along with 30 other states, as “yellow” when it came to road safety laws. Washington D.C.,
Maryland and 16 other states were rated in the highest category “green.”Stone said
Virginia could easily be a “green” state if it made its seat belt requirement a “primary offense.” Currently, it is illegal not to wear a seat belt while in a moving car in
Virginia but the violation is only a “secondary offense.” A person can only be charged with not wearing their seatbelt if they are pulled over for another reason.According to the report, about 55 percent of people killed in car accidents in 2006 were not wearing seat belts and the organization estimates that about 294 of
Virginia’s 4,200 lives lost between 1996 and 2003 to car accidents could have been saved if the commonwealth’s seat belt law had been a “primary offense.”People are more likely to change their behavior and wear a seat belt if it is more likely that they will be hit with a ticket, said Stone.Two local legislators introduced bills to make
Virginia’s seat belt law a “primary offense.”Sen. Patricia Ticer (D-30) saw her bill pass out of the senate while Del. Kris Amundson (D-44), of Mount Vernon, had her bill killed in the House of Delegates Police, Militia and Firearms committee. Advocates expect that Ticer’s seat belt bill will be killed by the same House committee that killed Amundson’s before the end of the session.”There are some bills that are perennials. The primary seat belt bill has been introduced since 1972 and it has never passed,” said Kurt Erickson, president of the Washington Region Alcohol Program that lobbies the General Assembly on behalf of such laws.
Those who opposed the primary seat belt bill, like local privacy activist Mike Stollenwerk, have said that the bill gives too much discretion to the police. Stollenwerk has argued that officers would now be able to pull over any citizen and question them easily by claiming that they suspected the person was not wearing their seat belt.
He has raised similar objections about other laws in the General Assembly this year, including those that would convert “secondary offenses” of provisional licenses given to minors to “primary offenses.” According to Stollenwerk, officers could pull a person over for allegedly violating one of the limitations placed on a provisional license – like talking on a wireless communication device – even if that person was of age and legally allowed to do so.
But there can be other less concrete reasons why certain driver safety laws do not gain support from members of the General Assembly. For example, some members have cited “state sovereignty” as their reason for killing bills that would ban open containers of alcohol from the passenger area of a moving vehicle, said Erickson.
The federal government pushes states toward banning open alcohol containers by allowing local governments to have more control over $14 million worth of annual federal highway funding if they enact or keep the law. Some
Virginia lawmakers resent the fact that the federal government would meddle in their affairs and so they refuse to pass the law and are thereby required to use the money for highway safety programs, said Erickson.In other cases, driving safety laws appear to get killed because of politics. Erickson supported a law to stiffen punishments for underage drunk driving proposed by Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-4) that failed to pass earlier this session because of a vote along political party lines in the committee, he said.”The merits of that bill were barely discussed before it was voted on,” said Erickson.
In a tough budget year, the fiscal impacts of a bill can also be a large factor in whether it passes out of a committee or not, said Albo, who heads up the Courts of Justice committee.
“If you create a crime that requires prison time, then you have to find the money for that prison space. That can make it more difficult to pass in a tough budget year,” said Albo.
Erickson and other advocates hope to see a few bills that should not have large fiscal impacts pass the senate.
Del. Sal Iaquinto (R-84) has proposed a law that would require those convicted of drunk driving to install an ignition interlock on their car following the first offense. A person has to breathe into the ignition interlock to start the car and then periodically breathe into the device while driving to keep the car running.
Iaquinto has included a $75 fee and $30 per month user charge that the offender would have to pay to cover the cost of the machine.
The device is meant to prevent repeat drunk driving offenders from doing so again. According to the Advocates for Highway Safety Report, studies have shown that a person has driven while intoxicated an average of 87 times before they are caught.
Advocates also support bill proposed by Del. William Janis (R-56) that would increase the period of time a minor’s license was suspended for drinking and driving from six months to one year and require a minimum fine of $250. The number of underage crashes involving alcohol is up over 40 percent in the last five years, despite teen consumption of alcohol remaining relatively flat, said Erickson.
“The greatest spike among DUI fatalities was among teens [in
Virginia],” said Erickson.Since both bills originated in the House of Delegates, it remains to be seen how much traction they can get in the Senate.
When asked about tougher driving laws in general, and not about these specific laws, Sen. Chap Petersen (D-34) said: “I find it overkill. We have pretty tough laws right now. … People make mistakes and we just can’t subject them to a huge debt or lengthy imprisonment for everything.” We represent people charged with DWI/DUI, reckless driving, speeding tickets and people injured in car crashes. If you have questions about any of these topics please look on our site for the information E-Books: http://www.bobkeeferlaw.com. Attorney Bob Keefer has been practicing in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia for over 25 years. He routinely goes to court in Rockingham County VA; Harrisonburg VA; Augusta County VA; Staunton VA; Woodstock VA; Shenandoah County VA; and Waynesboro VA. His other sites are http://www.keefercard.com; http://www.duidriver.net; http://www.recklessdriving.net