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The MMA Asks, "Can the Massachusetts Legislature be held liable for Right-of-Way Violations?"

Published on 6/27/2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The MMA Asks, "Can the Massachusetts Legislature be held liable for Right-of-Way Violations?"

For almost 2 years, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Transportation has been sitting on Senate Bill 1797, "An Act relative to increasing the civil fines and financial responsibilities and criminal penalties of motorists who violate the right of way of other motorists, motorcyclists, bicyclists and/or pedestrians, resulting in serious bodily injury and/or death". Sponsored by Senator Bruce Tarr, this bill has 14 formal co-sponsors, has been endorsed by other legislators, numerous Chiefs-of-Police, Fire Chiefs, Sheriffs, The Massachusetts Chiefs-of-Police Association, and literally thousands of signatures on petitions submitted to the committee. Yet after public hearings, victim impact letters, and a variety of other appeals, this bill still sits in committee “for further study”.

Since the State declined the opportunity to act on the Bill and the Session’s Summer hiatus is nearly upon us, which effectively renders the remaining Legislative Session lame, can the State Legislature be held liable for a failure to act? Should the Joint Committee on Transportation be accountable as a co-defendant for allowing aggressive driving to continue unchecked? The Massachusetts Motorcycle Association (MMA) thinks this would make an interesting test case for an attorney willing to try it.

Since this Bill has been assigned to “Study” on June 1, 2012, Massachusetts has seen at least 5 additional motorcycle fatalities directly related to Right-of-Way (RoW) violations. Actual RoW fatalities may in fact be higher since the MMA only tracks motorcycle statistics. These RoW fatalities and injuries include June 26 Foxboro (1 dead, 1 in medically induced coma), June 18 Boston (1 dead), June 11 Springfield (1 dead, 2 injured), June 8 Westfield (1 dead), June 8 Gloucester (1 dead). In each of these cases, at a minimum, the motorist at-fault was issued a “Failure to Yield” citation.

The MMA asks to what degree the Massachusetts Legislature is culpable regarding these deaths and injuries. Noting that the apparent “No-Cost to the Commonwealth” Bill was chiefly ignored, inaction needs to be explained and challenged. In fact, because this Bill seeks to increase the penalties associated with these infractions and could increase funds available to the Commonwealth while leveraging existing law and enforcement techniques, one asks again, “Why the Study Recommendation?” What is left to study?

The thousands of Petition signers, Police and Fire Chiefs, Sheriffs, Senate and Representative Sponsors, and victims and families ask why Massachusetts Legislators chose not act on this initiative?

For More Information, see http://www.massmotorcycle.org/ or contact SafetyDirector@MassMotorcycle.org

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