THE AIM/NCOM MOTORCYCLE E-NEWS SERVICE is brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) and the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), and is sponsored by the Law Offices of Richard M. Lester. For more information, call us at 1-(800) ON-A-BIKE or visit us on our website at http://www.ON-A-BIKE.com.
COAST TO COAST BIKER NEWS
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish
National Coalition of Motorcyclists
CONGRESS CONSIDERS MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS MONTH For many years the National Coalition of Motorcyclists has worked toward getting May officially designated by Congress as Motorcycle Awareness Month nationwide. Although virtually every state and major municipality now issues “Motorcycle Awareness” proclamations, no such Congressional proclamation has ever been passed to bring national awareness to motorcycle safety.
During the mid-90?s the House of Representatives banned such resolutions primarily due to the costs incurred by the public to work hundreds of these special days, weeks and months through the legislative process.
The federal government did officially recognize May 2004 as National Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month, thanks to the efforts of retiring U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a member of the NCOM Legislative Task Force whose Senate Resolution 168 was passed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate, but this did not provide a permanent solution.
Now, Congressman Michael Burgess of Texas has introduced House Resolution 339, a non-binding ?sense of Congress? measure that supports the goals of a ?Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month? in perpetuity. Though barred from setting aside periods on the calendar for a specific purpose or cause, HRES 339 ?supports the goals of a motorcycle safety awareness month? without officially designating such a month.
Your help is needed to get the measure enacted. Please contact your Congressional representatives and request that they support House Resolution 339, and make our federal legislators aware of motorcyclists’ overwhelming support for this effort.
COLORADO ENACTS HELMET LAW FOR YOUNG RIDERS While 30 states currently allow most adults the freedom to choose when and where to wear a helmet, only three of those states have no helmet requirement for any rider; Colorado, Iowa and Illinois.
Colorado has not had a helmet restriction since 1977, but now Colorado’s legislature has passed House Bill 1117 to require helmets for any rider under 18. The Kiddie Helmet Law was signed by Governor Bill Ritter on June 1, and the new law will go into effect on July 1, 2007.
This bill targets minors only, and adults 18 and older will still have freedom of choice. HB 1117 creates penalties of $25 to $110 for riders or passengers under 18 who fail to wear a motorcycle helmet, of which $10 would go to the Colorado traumatic brain injury trust fund.
?HB 1117 ?fixes? little-to-nothing,? said Terry Howard, State Coordinator of ABATE of Colorado, ?it is a solution in search of a problem.?
HELMET-FREE FOR A FEE Following on the heals of Governor Jennifer Granholm?s veto of a helmet law repeal bill passed by the Michigan legislature last year, a new piece of legislation has been introduced that puts a price on freedom by allowing riders to opt out of the state?s helmet requirement by paying a fee.
House Bill 4749 was recently introduced by State Rep. Barbarah Farrah (D-Southgate), and sponsored by no fewer than 60 representatives, that would allow motorcyclists the opportunity to buy their freedom for $100 per year or $200 for a three-year no-helmet permit. Supporters argue that the measure could ring up more than $25 million for the cash strapped state.
Motorcyclists could circumvent the mandatory helmet law, under the new bill, if they are 21 or older, have been licensed to operate a motorcycle for at least two years, complete a motorcycle safety course, have insurance or security of $20,000 for first-party medical benefits in the event of an accident, and purchase an endorsement for their license plate and license.
ABATE of Michigan, a group that has sought to have the 38-year-old mandatory helmet law repealed, has even claimed that the helmet law costs the state about $1.2 billion a year in tourism because cyclists go elsewhere to ride helmet-free.
Michigan is the only Great Lakes state with a helmet law, said Jim Rhoades, legislative director for ABATE, and out-of-state riders won?t visit because of the state?s current universal helmet mandate. “This helmet bill would be the strictest law that would allow adult choice,” Rhoades said.
TENNESSEE ENACTS R-O-W LEGISLATION ?I am proud to announce that HB1335 (Right of Way Violations) passed the Tennessee House today by a margin of 93-3,? exclaimed a jubilant Mike Hays, legislative director for CMT/ABATE, Inc.
The bill will go to the Governor after the Senate signs off on a minor amendment, and State Rep. Rob Briley who sponsored the House bill will ask the Governor to schedule a ceremonial bill signing event at his earliest convenience. Senator Tim Burchett sponsored the companion Senate bill, SB794.
?It will be up to the motorcyclists of Tennessee to educate those who will enforce and prosecute under this new law,? added Hays. ?Talking with your local police, prosecutors and judges is the best way to make sure the authorities use the new law where applicable.?
Meanwhile, the Tennessee General Assembly is wrapping up for the year and HB1283/SB1511, Tennessee?s helmet law modification bills, will be rolled into the 2008 legislative session. The helmet law repealer has passed the Senate and has passed the House Transportation Committee.
?When we launched the House bill, Dr. Joey Hensley, representative from Hohenwald, TN, lifetime rider and CMT/ABATE member was the prime sponsor,? explained Hays. ?But Dr. Hensley decided that there was entirely too much emphasis on the helmet and no attention paid to reducing the crashes, so he withdrew as the prime sponsor and long time supporter Representative Curry Todd of Collierville took the lead.?
Dr. Hensley has challenged the medical community to join with the motorcycling community to address issues that will lead to safer riding.
Pointing out that Tennessee?s fatality and injury rates are consistently higher than most of the 30 states that allow responsible adults the option of wearing a helmet, Rep. Todd said, “I stand strong on the rights of adults to have freedom of choice. Helmets are sold in the apparel department of dealerships, not the safety department. There is ample evidence to show that as states have repealed helmet laws, injury and fatality rates have declined. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Tennessee Legislature and the freedom loving motorcyclists of Tennessee to allow responsible adults the right to choose their riding apparel.?
DENVER TELLS BIKERS TO PIPE DOWN The Denver City Council has passed an ordinance aimed at muffling motorcycles that have been modified to make them louder, over thundering opposition from local bikers and motorcycle businesses. City Councilman Rick Garcia said he sponsored Council Bill 242 in response to mounting complaints from residents about thunderous hogs rolling through his northwest Denver districts at all hours. But bikers call the new law discriminatory.
The municipal ordinance, which passed 8-2, is the toughest noise law in the nation and will allow officers to ticket motorcyclists if a bike made after 1982 has a muffler lacking a mandatory factory U.S. Environmental Protection Agency noise certification stamp certifying that the exhaust system is in compliance, instead of testing the decibel level with a noise meter as previously required.
That means police will be able to pull over motorcycles they consider too loud, citing riders whose muffler isn’t EPA-certified, though noisy cars and trucks are still subject only to a sound-meter test, which motorcyclists say is more fair because it?s more objective.
Peter Boyles, a talk-radio host and avid biker whose show recently focused on the new ordinance, said police were “going to be able to pick and choose who they want to grab.”
Once ticketed, bikers will have two weeks to show a judge they fixed the problem to avoid a $500 initial fine. Garcia said out-of-towners could vow to never ride bikes with modified exhausts through the city again.
Some motorcycle shop owners warned they could be put out of business, and Garcia’s office was deluged with calls from across the country. Wayne “Lumpy” Ordakowski, who owns a motorcycle shop in southern Denver, said that dealers usually installed EPA-certified mufflers and most after-market shops didn’t stock them. The law jeopardizes small operators like him, he said. And the city should target bikers who make noise, not punish everyone who rides, he added.
As motorcycles soar in popularity, so do laws that restrict their sound levels. The city of Albuquerque, N.M. enacted a similar noise ordinance in 2002, but an uproar from the riding community convinced the city to switch to sound-meter testing.
TEXAS GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO TRAFFIC SENSORS During a discussion at the recent NCOM Convention regarding the spate of states enacting laws that allow riders to proceed through red lights that fail to cycle, Sputnik of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association (TMRA-II) and member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force (NCOM-LTF) told the audience that ?In Texas we decided that instead of giving bikers a legal way to proceed through a non-functioning traffic light, we?d require the state to make ?em work correctly.?
True to his word, HB 1279; ?relating to the requirement that a detector for certain traffic-actuated electric traffic-control devices register the presence of a motorcycle,? was passed and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on May 25, 2007.
WEIRD NEWS: TERROR SCARE ENTRAPS MOTORCYCLISTS Six motorcyclists, including five students, were on a fun ride after dinner in Calcutta, India, when they were hauled off to the police station and interrogated overnight as suspected terrorists.
Their crime: stopping their motorcycles in front of the American Center as one of them received a call on his cellphone. The sight of the six, on three motorcycles, was enough for the cops manning the ?high-security? address to suspect them to be terrorists. Fearing an attack — with memories of the January 2002 strike at the site and other recent terror bombings fresh in their minds — the guards called a police patrol team that rushed to the spot.
It took a whole night?s grilling for the police to realize that the six were anything but terrorists, and they were released the next morning.
Upendra Mishra, a second-year MBA student, said that he and his friends were on their way back home after dinner at McDonald?s, and were in front of the American Center around 10.15pm when Sandip Arora, also doing his MBA, got a call on his cellphone. ?Sandip stopped his bike and took the call. We, too, stopped. Suddenly, a police team rushed to the spot and we were taken to Shakespeare Sarani police station. We told the officers that we were students, but they would not listen to us,? Upendra added.
Deputy commissioner (south) Ajoy Kumar said: ?They were talking over cellphones in front of the American Center. It was very suspicious. As a precautionary measure, they were all examined.? An officer of the police station added: ?We thought they had planted bombs nearby and were talking on the phone to trigger a blast, just as what happened in Hyderabad.?
QUOTABLE QUOTE: ?If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856?1941)
