The Highway Safety and Policy Subcommittee advanced three traffic safety bills — on texting while driving, Carolina squat vehicles, and school zone speed limits — each passing seven to zero or six to zero, while tabling a bill that would have exempted EMS personnel from Virginia's seat belt law by a vote of five to one.
+ 3 more actions
Senator Jordan and Ed Rhodes (Virginia Association of First Responders, Virginia Ambulance Association, and Virginia Association of EMS Administrators) supported reporting SB 389, arguing it was a necessary cleanup to avoid a workers' compensation issue for EMS providers rendering patient care. An unnamed committee member made a substitute motion to table the bill; the identity of that member and their stated reasoning are not recorded in the transcript. The tabling motion carried five to one.
“Some judges recognize that driver improvement is acceptable in lieu of a conviction for first offense, frequently with substitute judges. They are not familiar with that. And we have had a few actual regular sitting judges that don't feel comfortable with it because the way the code is.”
+ 4 more quotes
Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.
Sign in to subscribeGood afternoon, everyone. We will now proceed with the transportation session subcommittee on highway safety and policy. If the clerk could please open the roll. If everyone would make your attendance known so that we can be sure that we have a quorum. Okay, we have five people present, and so I believe we do have a quorum. Is that correct? That is correct. All right, we have a quorum, so we will proceed. And I had promised that senator Sudelein that he could go first since he was here way early. So, senator Sudalein, why don't you tell us about Senate Bill 686, what problem you're trying to solve and how this legislation addresses that. Thank you very much, Chairman Reid and the subcommittee for your consideration of Senate Bill 686. The challenge that we're encountering in several courts in the western part of the commonwealth is our texting while driving law. Some judges recognize that driver improvement is acceptable in lieu of a conviction for first offense, frequently with substitute judges. They are not familiar with that. And we have had a few actual regular sitting judges that don't feel comfortable with it because the way the code…
Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Virginia committee hearings.
Sign in to subscribe