STREETSBLOG LA: Brown Vetoes Road User Safety Laws Including Hit-and-Run, Vulnerable User

Jose Vasquez leaves a candle at the ghost bike memorial for
Andy Garcia, killed in a vicious hit-and-run last year.
Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

In the last hours before the deadline for signing legislation from this year’s legislative session,
California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a batch of bills that could have improved safety for bicyclists, pedestrians, and other road users.

Included in the list of vetoes are three bills addressing the problem of hit-and-run crimes. Two of them would have increased penalties for convictions, and one would have made it easier to catch hit-and-run perpetrators. This brings to a total of four bills on the issue that passed both houses of the legislature with very few no votes—some unanimously—only to end up on the governor’s chopping block.

The governor’s general objection to creating new crime categories and increasing penalties was his excuse for declining these bills.

For similar reasons, Brown also vetoed Assemblymember Mark Levine’s “vulnerable user” bill that would have defined bicyclists and pedestrians, and a few other groups, as a special category of road users, and raised fines for conviction of violations that result in injury to them.

Another bill vetoed today was one that would have assessed a violation point against a driver’s record if convicted of using a cell phone or texting while driving. A second provision of the bill, requiring the Department of Motor Vehicles to include at least one question on the driver’s license exam addressing the dangers of distracted driving, may happen anyway. Brown, in his veto message [PDF], writes that he has directed the DMV to add such a question.

Here’s a list of bills [originated by Assemblymember Mike Gatto] that would have made the roads safer but were axed by the Governor:

• A.B. 1532, from Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), which would have required an automatic six-month license suspension for anyone convicted of a hit-and-run collision in which a person was hit, whether that person was injured or not. Assemblymember Gatto’s intent was to enforce the notion that people must stop when they are involved in a crash, no matter what. The governor disagreed, citing his usual reluctance to create new categories of crime and stiffen penalties. “I don’t find sufficient justification for creating a new crime when no injury to person or property occurred. I think the current law is adequate,” says his veto message [PDF]. 

• A.B. 47, also from Gatto, which would have created a new “Yellow Alert” system, similar to the existing Amber Alert that broadcasts information about child abductions quickly throughout the state. The Yellow Alert would have broadcast descriptions of vehicles suspected of being involved in hit-and-run crimes using freeway changeable message signs and other outlets to help law enforcement apprehend criminals who leave the scene of a collision. Governor Brown refused to sign this bill because of another bill, which he did sign, that adds developmentally disabled people to the groups for which the Amber Alert system can be used. “This expansion should be tested before adding more categories of individuals that could overload the system,” he wrote [PDF]. It’s doubtful that the families and friends of hit-and-run victims would agree that this wait-and-see approach is sensible. 

You can read this complete article and more at Streetsblog LA by clicking HERE

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the California State Assembly.  He represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

LA Streets Blog: “Damien’s Law?” Gatto Hit and Run Bill Clears Committee

by Damien Newton

Every time a cyclist is struck down by a negligent driver, especially when a hit and run is involved, I shudder. Since most of my on-bike time these days involve having a child either strapped to a seat behind me or nestled in a car-seat attachment in front of me, every crash leaves a scary reminder that no matter how safe I bicycle, I’m reliant on every passing car not to crash into me.

When a struck cyclist happens to share my name, I double-shudder. When the case is as horrific of the one suffered by Damien Kevitt, it’s a triple shudder. Kevitt was struck by a mini-van while riding his bicycle and dragged more than a quarter mile, down Interstate 5.  The collision resulted in dozens of broken bones and the amputation of one of Kevitt’s legs. The driver fled the scene.

Damien Kevitt. Image via ABC 7

In a press statement today celebrating the movement of AB 184, legislation that could lead to more arrests and prosecutions of hit and run drivers, the bill’s sponsor referenced Kevitt’s horrific experience as one more reason that California needs to change the way it views hit and run crashes.

“Damien Kevitt is just one of thousands hit-and-run victims who suffer life-threatening injuries annually,” said Assemblyman Mike Gatto, the legislation’s sponsor.  “Allowing the perpetrators to avoid prosecution just adds insult to these injuries.  AB 184 will allow victims and law enforcement to obtain justice.”

Currently, motorists who flee the scene of an accident can simply ”run down the clock” to avoid any liability whatsoever.  If a motorist is not identified within three years, the motorist cannot be prosecuted.

The legislation, AB 184, provides an additional tool to law enforcement officers investigating hit-and-run offenses by extending the statute of limitations for such offenses to three years from the date of the offense, or one year after a possible suspect is identified by law enforcement, whichever is later.

The Legislature has passed similar changes to statutes of limitations for crimes with hard-to-identify perpetrators, such as clergy abuse.

Eric Bruins, Planning and Policy Director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, noted that bicyclists and pedestrians are particularly vulnerable to hit-and-run collisions that result in death or serious bodily injury. “It’s hard for us to encourage people to bike and walk, when our streets are treated like the Wild West,” said Bruins.  “The L.A. County Bicycle Coalition commends Assemblyman Gatto for bringing attention to this issue and giving hit-and-run victims hope that their perpetrators might be brought to justice once identified.”

“This is a relatively easy and sensible fix to the law,” said Gatto.  “Presuming my bill becomes law, my hope is that people who would otherwise flee the scene of an accident realize that they can be prosecuted, no matter how long it takes.”

For Kevitt, new and improved laws come too late, just as the city’s bicycling anti-harassment ordinance came to late for those injured when Dr. Christopher Thompson decided to road-rage on some cyclists. However, if every bike crash helps lead to better laws, then eventually the city and state might finally treat traffic crime for what it really is…an ongoing community health crisis.

You can read this article and more at the LA Streets Blog HERE