laserpat
Member
Posts: 1043
Let the wind carry your troubles away!
Cedar Park, Texas
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« on: April 19, 2009, 07:36:04 AM » |
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TEXAS LEGISLATURE
Toddlers, motorcycles a risky mix, couple say
Bill would restrict children younger than 5 from riding
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Carolyn Allen said she and her husband were heading south on MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) this January, near Enfield Road, when they saw it: a motorcyclist flying along at about 65 mph, accompanied by what appeared to be a child about 4 years old hanging on for dear life.
"It looked like that child was being held on by static cling," Allen said. "The little arms couldn't even reach around the driver's body. One little bump, and that child would have been gone."
Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
(enlarge photo)
Sputnik
Decisions should be up to parents, says riding advocate.
(enlarge photo)
Valinda Bolton
State rep wants to set minimum age for riding.
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The Allens, assuming that such a thing had to be illegal, called 911. No, they were told, state law sets no minimum age for riding on a motorcycle. The Allens, now joined by state Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, are trying to change that with House Bill 4449. But given their timing, opposition from the motorcycle rights lobby and the slow pace of legislating this session, the bill figures to have trouble making it through.
"I think it's up to the parents how to treat their kids," said Sputnik, the one-named founder of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association and a longtime lobbying presence at the Capitol.
He said his children, and now his grandchildren, have ridden his motorcycle with him — though never on highways — at very young ages. They sit on top of the gas tank when they're really little, Sputnik said. "When they're big enough to hang on behind you, they hang on."
Allen said she finds all of that appallingly dangerous. She points out that under state law, a person 16 or younger must wear a seat belt in the front and back seats of a car. And anyone younger than 18 cannot legally ride in the bed of a pickup. But a 3-year-old, she said, can ride on the back of a motorcycle.
The Allens, familiar with the legislative process because George Allen lobbies for the apartment industry, took a proposed law to Bolton stipulating that a child younger than 5 could ride on a motorcycle only in an emergency or for "a law enforcement purpose."
The bill will be heard this week in the House Transportation Committee, said the committee chairman, Rep. Joseph Pickett, D-El Paso.
Carolyn Allen said she wants the bill amended to require that if a child between the ages of 5 and 15 is going to ride on a motorcycle, it must be equipped with pegs for them to put their feet on.
Sputnik said his association finds such a requirement unacceptable and that he would work against its passage.
Pickett, who owns a Harley Road King Police Special, said the bill might need tweaking. He said some people with children might have no other form of transportation or their motorcycle might have a sidecar. The bill as written does not clearly define whether having a small child in a sidecar would be allowed.
Is he for the bill?
"Obviously, I think enough of it to give it a hearing," Pickett said.
Allen said she had hoped her measure would be attached to a motorcycle safety bill that was approved by a Senate committee last week.
The sponsor of that bill, Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said its content had been negotiated before the session with motorcycle and safety advocates and agreed upon, and he said legislative etiquette requires that it not be tinkered with. But Carona, who has children ages 5 and 6, said if HB 4449 makes it to the Senate, he'll support it.
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