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FREE SPIRITED ATV USERS SHOULD BE HAPPY - No New Laws, Ride On |
| (03/01/2003) |
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If you've had concerns over the regulation of ATVs in West Virginia, they will not be resolved by the West Virginia
Legislature. The defeat appears to be based on personal property rights, but the bill allowing the vehicles to be ridden on paved roads without a center line was in contention. ATVs will continue to have "open season," with little or no laws to prevent them from being ridden on paved highways, with or without a center line, except in towns that have banned them. They are not allowed on the interstate. Law enforcement continues to "stick their neck out" when they write tickets to drivers of ATVs. This is the eight year the legislature has tried to implement safety rules on the vehicles which killed 27 people last year in the Mountain State, and seriously, sometimes permanently, injured hundreds of others. West Virginia has the highest death rate in America. Many of those affected are children.Three 13-year-olds died in a matter of days last year. The Senate rejected two ATV bills Friday. "You never say never around here, but I would say, in the Senate, there's a real good chance it's dead," said Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan. Some Senators contended the bill that came out of a House-Senate conference committee (HB2121) could be worse than no law at all. "An awful lot of responsibility lies with the parents in this state," Sen. Mike Ross, D-Randolph, said in defense of the bill. "We can't legislate common sense. We cannot pass a perfect bill that eliminates all the accidents out here on ATVs." Ross has generally opposed most ATV proposals. One propose bill had three primary points: mandating that children wear helmets at all times, whether riding on public or private property; children could not have passengers on ATVs at any time; and cities and counties would have full authority to restrict or prohibit ATVs. Opponents of that measure argued that it infringed on private property rights. Leff Moore, lobbyist for an ATV manufacturer's group, had argued the bill was dangerously broad in opening up roads to ATVs, saying it would have legalized their operation on 21,000 miles of two-lane roads in the state. Moore says the the makers of the vehicles say they are unsafe on paved roads, most certainly with two passengers and without a helmet. The measure is dead, unless midnight legislation surfaces this last week of the session. |
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