Hello to all. First and foremost, thanks to each of you for your support of our bill. I tried to answer each of you that wrote me, and if I missed replying to your message, please know I am forever grateful for your help.
What a day. Bernie, Wendy, and I drove to Richmond this morning for the 8:30 Transportation Committee meeting. Our helmet reform bill was read shortly before 11AM - with an additional amendment - insurance clause.
Before I go much further, I should explain we have been hearing rumblings about the possibility of this amendment for a week or so. We had MANY discussions about this possibility. And there were MANY thoughts about how to handle it. Through our lobbyist and VCOM we learned that our bill would absolutely die in committee without adding an insurance clause. It simply did NOT have the support without it. We discussed killing our own bill - some felt doing this would only arm our enemies in the future by sending the message that the easiest way to handle this controversial issue is add an insurance clause each year and have us kill our OWN bill. We discussed allowing the insurance clause in the hopes that we give our enemies no ammunition to vote against it and then we go back and have the clause removed in the future - some felt doing this is selling out and agreeing with the social burden theory. We discussed just leaving it as it is, and letting it get voted down in committee - some felt doing this sets us back so far that we would never regain our ground.
In the end, the clause has been added - ABATE of VA has voted to support it. Trust me when I tell you it was NOT an easy decision and it was not unanimous and I believe I can speak for everyone when I say no one is happy about it. But majority rules, and that's where we stand.
So our bill now has an insurance clause. It simply states that all who choose to ride lidless will have to provide proof of medical insurance - this proof could be medical coverage on a motorcycle policy. There is no amount specified and for the perfectly logical reason that Medicare, Medicaid, military coverage, etc. don't specify a specific amount of coverage.
When the bill was presented there were several questions about the type of insurance, the amount of insurance, how it would be enforced, if DMV was responsible for indicating it on a license, etc. As a result, HB374 has been reassigned to sub committee 3. It will likely be heard there tomorrow, and then back to full committee next Tuesday or Thursday.
Penny Adams
ABATE of Virginia South Fork Chapter Secretary
MRF Virginia State Representative
