Published: February 23, 2008 01:17 am      

Bill banning ATVs on paved roads advances

CHARLESTON — A bill that would ban all-terrain vehicles from paved roads is closer to becoming law, having won approval Friday from the Senate Finance Committee.

The measure would restrict ATV riding on paved roads to crossing from one trail or field to another, but would give county and municipal authorities wide leeway in further regulating the use of the vehicles.

“This bill will give a little bit of teeth to current law enforcement efforts,” said Karen Coria, a lobbyist for the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, which represents ATV manufacturers.

Coria believes the latitude allowed county and local governments will help this bill succeed where similar efforts have failed. It now heads to the full Senate for a vote.

Last year, a similar measure died before it reached the full Senate, having fallen victim to opposition from powerful members of the Senate worried about the reactions of their constituents.

“There was a real push this time to ensure we had a safety bill, and not just from us,” Coria said. She said Senate Finance Committee members had been getting deluged with phone calls from citizens in support of the measure.

Supporters of the bill point to statistics showing that two-thirds of ATV fatalities since 2005 have occurred on paved roads. Last year, 45 people were killed in ATV wrecks.

Skeptics, though, assert that many of those deaths were probably unavoidable.

Sen. Shirley Love has repeatedly drawn attention to the number of fatalities involving alcohol or drugs. That number was the source of confusion in debate over the bill because a chart distributed by supporters of the bill erroneously made it seem as if 37 of the 45 deaths involved alcohol or drugs.

In fact, an analysis prepared by the Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center and Bureau for Public Health, shows 16 of the deaths involved alcohol or drugs.

“Next year, you’re going to have 45 or 50 more idiots like this if they want to get killed,” said Love, a Fayette County Democrat.

Critics of the bill, including Love, have said the state could reduce fatalities by more aggressively enforcing current law, which prohibits riding ATVs on two-lane paved roads. The new law, they argue, could be an unfair burden on riders.

Mark Holmes, program coordinator for the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, said the proposed ban allows riders to briefly ride on paved roads to get one from one field or trail to another.

“Those that are responsible riders are not going to be the ones affected by this,” he said.