Date: Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Subject: SB 1918 Stiffer Penalties Bill
To: 1Salus - HCC Naples <rehabhccnaples@lavierehab.com
From: Darrin Brooks
Date: Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Subject: SB 1918 Stiffer Penalties Bill
To: 1Salus - HCC Naples
Hey everyone,
I choose to wait until after the legislative session was over in order to give a report on SB 1918 the "Stiffer Penalties" Bill. On Wednesday the 21st it was placed on the Special Order Calendar and on the 23rd it was heard on the Senate Floor. From the 23rd until the 29th it was heard several times on the floor and each time it came up against heavy opposition and had 9 different amendments that were attempted to be attached to it.
One amendment by Sen. Oelrich from the district that covers Alachua County and the potions of the surrounding counties, stated that the penalties will ONLY apply if the motorcyclist is wearing a helmet. If you hit and killed a motorcyclist without a helmet the fines and jail time did NOT apply.
There was also talk that if the Bill was successful an amendment would be added that would REQUIRE all motorcyclist to wear helmets again. It was soon apparent that if the Bill was to be passed the opposition would require some type of helmet amendment.
Therefore our options were: 1) pass a very weak bill that lost all the teeth, 2) a strong bill that would require helmets to be worn, or 3) let the bill die and try again next year. Since a very weak Bill was worthless and helmets were totally unacceptable, the decision was made to let the Bill die and try again next year.
Darrin "Scribe" Brooks,
State Legislative Trustee,
ABATE of Florida, Inc.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." ~ Gerald FordAdd to Technorati Favorites
