Legislation to Protect Bicyclists and Pedestrians

[Carey Rogers]

 

I need your help to pass a bill now in the General Assembly that will protect cyclists and pedestrians.

Jerry Norman, Sr., 74, was struck while walking on the sidewalk on Lebanon Pike in Nashville on the morning of June 29, 2010. Police said the driver of the pickup truck who hit him fell asleep behind the wheel. The Davidson County Attorney General said that was not a violation of state law.

Several members of Bike Walk Tennessee worked in 2011 to amend the due care law and the failure to yield statute to cover cases like this one when pedestrians and cyclists were killed or injured. We did not change the criminal penalties because we thought it was already a Class A misdemeanor.

Elena Zamora, a 17 year old student at Hume Fogg High School in Nashville, was killed December 19, 2013 when she was hit by a truck driver who “didn’t see her”.

The truck driver received a $500 fine which was the maximum penalty under the failure to yield statute. I knew that needed to change and wrote another bill.

HB 2300 (Beck) – SB 2425 (Yarbro)

This bill will increase the penalty for failure to yield the right of way resulting in death to a Class A misdemeanor which is a $2,500 fine and/or 11 months 29 days in jail. 

The bill will be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee on March 14 at 3:30 pm. It passed out of the House Transportation Sub-Committee and will be heard in the full House Transportation Committee on March 15 at 1:30 pm. 

Please contact your legislator if they are on one of these committees and ask them to honor Elena’s memory by passing this bill.

House Transportation Committee

Senate Transportation Committee

 

Thanks to Representative Bill Beck and Senator Jeff Yarbro for sponsoring this legislation. 

 

Carey Rogers

For more information contact me at carey...@comcast.net