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ATV Helmet Bill Awaits Action By Senate Committee

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Jack Brammer, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Mar. 22--FRANKFORT -- The Senate Transportation Committee is expected to exempt youngsters involved in farm work from a bill requiring youths younger than 16 to wear helmets while riding all-terrain vehicles, its chairman said this morning.

Sen. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, said the farm exemption is necessary in House Bill 334 to help its chances of passing in the full Senate. Guthrie's committee was scheduled to consider the bill this morning but did not. He said the panel will meet again, but he did not know when.

Today is the 55th day of the 60-day legislative session.

"It will pass," Guthrie said. Asked whether it will be more difficult to enforce with the farm exemption, Guthrie said, "What if they were out working on a tractor and the dad says, 'Go get a wrench,' and the kid runs to get a wrench and doesn't have a helmet with him?"

Michele Finn, an advocate with the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky, which has been pushing the helmet bill for several years, said she prefers the bill without the exemption but said it might be necessary for passage. The exemption does not "gut the bill," Finn said. "It's going to send a message to parents that their kids do need to wear helmets to ride ATVs."

Finn expects the vote in the full Senate to be close. A sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jim Gooch Jr., D-Providence, said he would like to make any farm exemption "as limited and narrow as we can."

Someone might break the law and then say, "I was going out to water the cows or something," Gooch said. "That could be a real problem." The House approved the bill March 8 on a 56-34 vote.

Even though the exemption might make the law difficult to enforce, Finn said, "the bill shows the state is concerned about this issue."

Gooch said today he did not know whether he would recommend that the House concur with a Senate change in the bill, which would send it to a committee to try to iron out differences between the two chambers. He said he thinks there is time for both chambers to pass it before the session ends.

Kentucky leads the nation in ATV deaths, and safety advocates say they think a helmet law would save lives and reduce injuries, including devastating brain injuries that can leave people disabled for life.

Critics of the bill have expressed concerns about property rights, claiming law-enforcement officials should not be able to ticket youths riding the vehicles on private property. Under the bill, parents or guardians would be responsible for paying the fine for a violation. A fine would range from $20 to $50.

The bill also would prohibit anyone younger than 16 from riding in the open cargo area of a truck or any flatbed trailer, with a few exceptions. The measure would not apply to a truck in an organized parade, a truck with a camper top or other enclosure of the open cargo area, or a farm truck on private property. The penalty would be as much as $100.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)

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