Senate committee says no to motorcycle helmets, tarps.

In the face of motorcyclist opposition, the Senate Transportation Committee this morning failed to make a motion on a bill that would toughen state helmet requirements. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kim Hendren, mandates that a rider either wear a helmet or carry $10,000 of health insurance.

Sen. Hendren said the helmet requirement would cut down on injuries and thereby reduce public health costs. Rodney Roberts, a motorcyclist who testified against the bill, countered that there is contradictory evidence on the effectiveness of helmets in saving lives, and that in some cases helmets are responsible for deaths. (The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found a positive correlation between helmet use and crash survival.)

Roberts further argued that the law would be ineffective and a hassle to bikers, who would have to acquire a decal to prove they had health insurance. He said the decal might mar the appearance of bikes. He also said it was unfair to make motorcyclists acquire health insurance but not the general population.

Members of the committee did not seem impressed with any of this reasoning. “People against a bill will use every argument they can,” Sen. Bobby Glover told Roberts.

In the end, however, the committee did not make a motion. The bill will remain on the active calendar. Sen. Hendren said he might give it another shot later in the session.

The helmet requirement is representative of a gradual approach Sen. Hendren has taken to traffic safety issues this session. Even if it passed, the bill would not make Arkansas one of the 21 states to have a universal motorcycle helmet requirement. Nor does the bill prescribe strict penalties for violators. A Sen. Hendren-sponsored bill requiring teen drivers to use hands-free cell phones also had weak enforcement provisions.

Sen. Hendren encountered another defeat this morning when the Transportation Committee declined to approve his bill that would require trucks carrying gravel to be covered with a tarp. A number of county judges who spoke against the measure called it an unfunded mandate. A 2001 law exempted trucks made after 2001 from using a tarp; Sen. Hendren said it is time to end that exception. He offered to set a firm deadline a few years in the future to end of the exemption, but the judges countered that they should not have to supply trucks with tarps until the economy is on steady ground.

Senate committee wants more drivers insured.

Though the most prominent topic in the Senate Transportation Committee this session has been the restriction of drivers’ cell-phone use — today there was a compromise on a bill affecting young motorists, in fact — the committee may soon produce legislation to encourage more car owners to purchase liability insurance. Though no action was taken in this morning’s meeting, discussion signaled that committee members will explore how to increase the rate of insured drivers in the state.

The working document is SB125, sponsored by Sen. Kim Hendren. The bill would establish an insurance database at the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA). Officials would check the database  on a monthly basis; any car owner discovered to be uninsured for a period at least three months would be subject to a $50 fine and a loss of car registration.

However, legislation the committee eventually recommends will likely have substantial differences from Hendren’s bill. Several members of the committee said they want to put more teeth into the measure.

“Maybe their drivers license should be suspended” if they don’t have insurance, said Sen. Bobby Glover, a committee member.

Current law requires drivers to be insured in order to register a vehicle, but proof of insurance is rarely checked until registration is renewed. Chuck Lange, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriff’s Association, said law enforcement generally does not run random tag checks for proof of insurance.

Mike Munns, Assistant Commissioner of Revenue at DFA, said the rate of uninsured drivers in Arkansas has steadily declined since the late 1980s, when a quarter of motorists were uninsured. The uninsured rate is currently between 12 and 15 percent. A recent study by the Insurance Research Council found 15 percent, but Munns said DFA’s data found 12-13.

(Read on for other stats on uninsured drivers.)

No hands-free necessary, for now.

A bill that would require all drivers to use a hands-free device while talking on a cell phone failed to get out of the Senate Transportation Committee today. The bill, which Sen. Kim Hendren sponsored, was the most restrictive of four cell-phone matters the committee considered.

Three bills made it to the Senate floor:  One outlaws texting while driving, and two similar measures place restrictions on cell-phone use by teen motorists. The Senate now must decide between a bill that bans cell phone use behind the wheel until the age of 18 and another, already passed in the House, that contains that provision as well as a requirement that drivers use only hands-free from 18-20.

The only no vote on the teen-talking bills came from Sen. Larry Teague.

Committee members appeared cool to Sen. Hendren’s hands-free proposal, which would have applied to all drivers. The bill failed to receive a motion, which means that it will remain on the committee schedule.  Sen. Hendren said he might reintroduce the measure later this session if other cell-phone restrictions become law.

If Arkansas were to pass a hands-free requirement, it would be only the sixth state to do so. According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, a non-profit group that tracks traffic-safety issues, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington have a hands-free law.  Teen bans are more widespread: 17 states have restrictions on cell-phone use by young drivers.

Hendren to judges: Get off your duffs.

Lawyers, federal judges, Little Rock politicians: none were safe from the withering criticism of Sen. Kim Hendren in the Joint Budget Committee this morning as he presented a bill to stop federally mandated payments to Pulaski County school districts. The payments are made in fulfillment of a 1989 settlement requiring school desegregation and must continue until the schools are ruled to have achieved unitary status. Appeals in the case are ongoing.

The bill would redirect the payments toward health benefits for public school employees.

Judging from committee commentary, however, Hendren’s measure will face numerous legal difficulties and will have a hard time proceeding.

Hendren’s main argument: the desegregation agreement wastes state money.  He said Arkansas has spent $800 million dollars on the settlement over the past twenty years. Citing an article in today’s Democrat-Gazette on high remedial rates in colleges across the state, he complained that the payments had not improved quality of education. (N.B.: The payments only go to three districts within Pulaski County.)

“If we don’t do something, we’re talking about trillions,” Hendren said.

Hendren also put lawyers and judges in his cross hairs. Lawyers in the case are living off money that should be going for education, he said. And federal judges have waited too long to issue rulings on whether schools are in fact desegregated.

“I support the judiciary, but they need to get off their duffs and get something done,” Hendren said.

Yet even Hendren acknowledged that the bill has a tough road ahead, particularly as it is sure to be unpopular  in Little Rock.

(Read on for the generally cool reception to the proposal.)