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THE AMA CORNER-May 1, 2002 Welcome to Spring of 2002 and temperatures about ten degrees lower than
they ought to be. Well, nothing new for the Great Northeast, where Spring often
lasts about two days and then we jump right into summer. As long as we can
ride, who cares? First to our “Yield the Right of Way” bill(Assembly bill 9703/Senate bill 6150.) Both bills are still in the respective Transportation Committees in both houses. Since time is marching on, I have asked the main sponsor in the Assembly, Deputy Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari to request that the bill be moved out of the Transportation Committee and on to the Rules Committee. We’ll have to see what happens at this point. Meanwhile, in the Senate, the main sponsor, Senator Owen Johnson is angling to get the bill moving in the next week or so and wants to have it pass the Senate on the same day that we hold our Freedom Rally in Albany. That’s on May 20th. In another development on this front, I was in contact with the Trial Lawyers Association to ask them to support and lobby for this bill. They have an extremely powerful and influential PAC. I’ve just received a communication from them which indicates that they are willing to get behind the bill with one caveat. They want a sentence added which would make any plea or trial conviction “prima facie” evidence of negligence in any civil action in any Court brought for injury, death or property damage. Right now, one cannot use conviction on this misdemeanor count from criminal court as that kind of evidence in a civil case. Personally, I’m in favor of having a conviction or guilty plea on a yield the right of way violation able to be used in case of injury or death. I am not in favor of such in a civil suit involving just property damage, which they would like included. They also interpret this to mean that such would be able to be used even if the plea were reduced or become another violation or an adjournment in complation of dismissal. I , personally, am against that. I think we have to be focused on the misdemeanor of “yield the right of way violation that results in injury or death”, period. Naturally, we all understand why trial lawyers would want the rest, but it’s my opinion we should keep the bill more narrowly focused. If any of you have suggestions on this, I need to hear about them post haste as we only have about a month and a half left in this session before they recess. I will be in contact with AMA headquarters on this next week, to see what their take is, but we, in New York, have to ultimately make our own decisions on this. Let me hear from you, please. If there are any lawyers out there who are AMA members, please let me hear from you on this. On this subject…Virginia has passed its Motorcyclists Matter bill which provides stiffer penalties including the possibility of losing the driver’s license for up to a year. It’s almost exactly what we’re trying to get through in our legislature. I’ve told this to the chief Transportation Analyst in the Assembly and I’m still hoping we can move our bill. Let you know. The handlebar height bill(Assembly bill 10574) has been withdrawn from the calendar by its sponsor, Joseph Robach. This is the bill which would allow the height of handlebars to be as high as the shoulders of the rider. Committee analysts said they wanted numbers…twenty inches? Twenty one inches, etc? That’s crap, of course. Wherever the bars are comfortable for the rider should be the gague, not a matter of inches. What may be comfortable for a short waisted or short armed rider at 15 inches(the regulation now) might very well be very uncomfortable and therefore unsafe for a taller or longer armed rider. Nevertheless, the bill has been withdrawn and I’ve asked the potential Senate sponsor, Sen. John Kuhl, not to submit the bill as it would be a total waste of time. We’ll try again on this, next session. We’ve got to persuade the analysts that they’re off base on their reasoning and I’ve got to get hold of the bills in other states that have already permitted handlebars to be raised, as backup for our position. There is one other note on this bill. The Assembly sponsor, Joseph Robach, may very well be withdrawing from the Assembly to run for the State Senate. In the process of redistricting, which happened, as you know, this year, he was essentially screwed. He’d probably make a more successful run for the Senate in his area which is up around Rochester and Monroe County. There is also this: There are rumors that he will switch parties from Democrat to Republican, to do this. The Republicans control the Senate. Regardless of which party he runs in, he is a strong supporter of motorcyclists’ issues and I would hope that the bikers in his area would go out and work for him come November, no matter what. Here’s another item of interest. In many of the state parks, there is a fee if you enter. As one example, there is one in the Ontario County area which charges by the vehicle…it’s six dollars per vehicle. Here’s the problem: you can bring a van, truck or car in with multiples of people aboard…up to 15 if you’ve got a van big enough for that and you pay six dollars. If you come in with a motorcycle, which can only hold two people, maximum, you pay six dollars. Needless to say, that’s discriminatory! Bob “Prospector” Boellner and I had a meeting with officials of the State Parks and Recreation Department a short time ago to take up this problem. Fortunately, they seemed quite open minded about it and luckily for us, one of the two who met with us, their attorney, is a motorcyclist(rides a Hayabusa). We want the Department to lower the rates for motorcycles because of the huge disadvantage we’re put at in comparison with other vehicles. Also, car, van and truckloads of people will use much more of the resources and services of the state parks than will motorcyclists. We expressed our dismay that motorcyclists, again, are being discriminated against in light of the fee charged per vehicle and asked the Department to do something about it. They are going to do an evaluation. Both Bob and I feel that we carved out a good opening and position for the motorcycling community with our presentation. Obviously, we won’t know about results for some time, but we’ve started the process. If State Parks and Recreation decides that they can’t or won’t do anything about this, ultimately, then we’ll go the legislative route. However, seeing as the officials who met with us were sympathetic and open about the entire issue, we’ll wait to see what they’ll do before entertaining a legislative solution. Here’s some info on the anti-discrimation measure(Senate bill 706). It’s already been passed by the Asssembly as you know. Last week, I met with Paul Zuber, associate counsel to the State Senate to push that body into making a move. The bill had already been reported out of Transportation and was on the floor waiting for a vote. Zuber said that some questions they’d had about the wording of the bill originated with the State D.O.T. , but that the agency had now withdrawn its objections. This means there should be no obstacle to getting the bill to a vote. I made a call to Zuber, again, today, to find out what’s happening as he had said there was no reason, now, that the bill shouldn’t get an affirmative vote and be sent on to the Governor. For those who don’t remember, this was an initiative started by motorcyclists in Monroe County. It would bar communities from banning motorcycles on any road, street or highway that uses state funds to design, construct, operate or maintain that road. It’s modeled directly after a federal regulation that is already in effect for federal funds. Senator Johnson’s office is hoping to get action on the bill within the next week or two. I think the Governor would sign it. On the issue of lowering tolls for motorcycles on the New York State Thruway. That issue is still very much alive! I met with four officials of the Thruway Authority last month and since then, a numnber of legislators, at our behest, have written letters to the Authority asking them to do what the Governor said he wanted them to do in the last paragraph of his veto of last year; lower the toll, admininstratively. Also, one of the most influential aides in Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s office at my behest, personally made a call to the Director of the Thruway Authority to press him to take action on this. So, we’re still very much in the fight for a lower toll. The issue is certainly far from dead! REPEATING AGAIN--- Motorcyclists can now call 1-800-POTHOLE when they find a road condition that is hazardous to motorcycling. There is supposed to be a message for motorcyclists at this number and I NEED TO KNOW THAT IT’S EITHER WORKING OR NOT WORKING. Please call that number from whatever area of the state you are in and let me know the result you are getting by e-mailing me at lschwartz@webramp.net It’s the only way I can get D.O.T. to make sure that changes are made where necessary. As for the issue of restoring the ATV Trails and Maintenance Fund(Assembly bill 8781/Senate bill 4922) the negotiations go on. We’re trying to come to some sort of compromise with the Adirondack Council, Adirondack Mountain Club, Sierra Club etc(you know, the “environmentalists” or anti-access people as I term them). We’ve had a couple of negotiating sessions, but we’re still far from a final agreement. It’s a very important issue seeing as ATVing is the fastest growing segment of motorized recreation in the state, today. The anti-access groups’ main worry is trespass by ATV’s in wilderness and forest preserve areas. Anyway, we’re working on it and still hope to come up with an agreed upon solution, although it may not happen before the session recesses for the summer. Because it’s an ELECTION YEAR, the PAC is going to be strained. I realize that many of the clubs in the state have sent money to the PAC from time to time and we appreciate that very much. But, we simply have to do more to keep the PAC viable so that your lobbyists here(myself and Bob Boellner) can keep on going to the fund raisers that are necessary as access pipelines to legislative leadership. PLEASE BEGIN A “PASS THE PAC HAT” PROGRAM IN YOUR CLUB! Believe me when I tell you it is no strain to do this and it is still the easiest and most efficient way for motorcyclists to show their support for the efforts being made in Albany to PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS! Simply pass the hat at your regular meetings and ask your members to throw in whatever they want…a buck, two bucks, five bucks…whatever. Then have your club treasurer make out a club check in the aggregate amount to AMA-PAC and send it on to me at Larry Schwartz I cannot tell you how much this effort would mean to the entire motorcycling community in this state. We have already achieved a great deal at the legislature and there is much more to be done, but we need your help in this!! Just as an example: we’ll be sending a mailing to all the dealers on our list..that’s hundreds, both off and on road and that’s going to cost almost eighteen hundred dollars($1800) alone. We’ve got to do things like this to try and gain support for the PAC from all areas of the motorcycling community, but it means that the financial help we need has to be initiated at the dealer and club levels. I thank everyone for the support so far. Please keep it up! Here’s some other items you should know about. California’s legislation that would give those 21 and over the right to choose whether to wear a helmet or not is winding its way through the legislative process. One problem!!!!!!!!! You’d have to carry one MILLION dollars in medical insurance coverage. Again, that law, if passed, will make every motorcyclist a second class citizen with the state motorcyclists buying into the absolutely bankrupt social burden theory. AMA is completely against this bill and I agree. Accepting helmetless riding at the expense of your right to choose without hindrance does nothing but hurt motorcyclists nationwide! The motorcycling community in Europe has finally convinced the European Union to delete Harley Davidson motorcycles from its list of items for proposed heavy tariffs in the steel fight with the United States. We’ve put tariffs on imported steel and Europe wants to retaliate with tariffs on a number of our stuff. H-D’s were on the list. They are not, anymore. Kudos to our European brothers and sisters. Starting in 2003, European motorcycles will be subject to much stricter emissions. It’s a reduction of 60% for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons over present standards. If you don’t think these things are coming our way..think again! The AMA is again calling for a comprehensive, nationwide study of motorcycle accident data following the new motorcycle related fatality statistics released by NHTSA(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). According to NHTSA, 3067 motorcyclists were killed on the roadways in 2001, up from 2862 the previous year. That’s a 7.2% increase over 2000. The raw figures, however, give no clue as to why this has happened because there’s been no recent research. AMA notes that one reason for increased fatalities is obvious: a tremendous increase in the popularity of motorcycling with sales of street bikes up over 100% in the past five years. The National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety put out by the combined efforts of NHTSA and the MSF, calls for a motorcycle-accident study, which has yet to be scheduled. NHTSA continues to talk about “safer crashing” instead of concentrating on accident prevention. We think training and education make a big difference and we also think a national study on motorcycle accidents and their causes will support that theory. Finally…DON’T FORGET THE FREEDOM RALLY, MAY 20TH AT THE STATE CAPITOL IN ALBANY. IT STARTS AT PEOPLE’S CHOICE ICE CREAM ON ROUTES 9 & 20 JUST OFF EXIT 11-E OF THE FREEBIE I-90. THE PARADE INTO THE CAPITOL WILL START AT 11AM SHARP. ON THE STEPS AT NOON FOR THE RALLY. SEE YOU THERE!! Well, we’re off to the state of Washington for a few days of fun and frolic. Happy May to all and remember that May is Motorcycle Awareness Month in New York State. Until the next time, ride free and most importantly, ride safe! |
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