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Committee advances bill creating civil affirmative defense for drivers who hit people blocking roadways, with carve-outs
Summary
House Bill 411 would create an affirmative civil-defense for drivers who injure someone while attempting to navigate roadways blocked by people willfully obstructing traffic; lawmakers amended the bill to exclude emergency responders and others lawfully working on roadways.
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee voted to give House Bill 411 a favorable report after adopting an amendment that clarifies who the bill will not protect.
Representative Stringer introduced HB 411 as a measure intended to provide an affirmative defense in civil cases for drivers involved in incidents where people are willfully blocking roads. "HB 4 11 is a proposed bill that's gonna protect people from civil liability in situations where someone is blocking the road and someone is injured or killed or there's property damage," Stringer said, adding the bill "is only dealing with the civil side of this."
Representative Perez presented an amendment that the committee accepted, intended to make clear the legislation does not apply to people who are lawfully working on or modifying roads. Perez read the language into the record: "...nothing in this act is intended to apply to individuals or entities that are lawfully working in a manner that may obstruct the flow of traffic including emergency responders, surveyors, engineers, contractors, or other persons that have a legal or contractual right or obligation to modify, obstruct, or direct a change in the flow of traffic or access to the roadway."
Committee members pressed the sponsor on scenarios the bill would cover. Representative Morris asked whether the measure would apply to someone fixing a broken-down vehicle; the sponsor said it would not. Representative England raised a concern about whether the affirmative defense could be used by a driver who intentionally ran down protesters. "There isn't a distinction in this that says that this isn't available to them. Is there?" England asked. The sponsor said the factual basis of a criminal prosecution could inform the civil case and that courts could stay civil actions pending criminal proceedings.
Representative Fiddler urged that the legislation protect good Samaritans who stop to help at crash scenes. "I'm concerned about, like, the good Samaritan who comes up on an accident and knows that we have oncoming traffic and somebody needs to go check on whoever's in the accident... I'm just a volunteer, somebody that's trying to help a bad situation that just happened," Fiddler said. The sponsor said the amendment's carve-outs were intended to cover people lawfully working on roads and that he was open to further refinements.
After discussion the committee approved the amendment and voted to give HB 411 a favorable report. Representative Pettis moved the report and Representative Betzel seconded; the committee recorded the bill as having a favorable report to the next step. The committee also discussed the bill's interplay with simultaneous criminal proceedings; the sponsor noted courts could stay civil actions while criminal cases proceed.
Votes at a glance: House Bill 411 — Favorable report (motion moved by Representative Pettis; seconded by Representative Betzel). Detailed vote tallies were not specified in the committee record provided.
The committee advanced HB 411 with a carve-out for emergency responders and those lawfully working on roadways; members signaled they were willing to continue refining the language to address intentional conduct versus accident scenarios.
