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Committee reviews bill to codify privately owned-vehicle lights for volunteer emergency responders in Baltimore City and County
Summary
Sponsors told the House Environment and Transportation Committee on April 1 that bills would codify a limited practice allowing volunteer Hotsawa officers in northwest Baltimore to equip privately owned vehicles with red or red-and-white lights when responding to emergencies.
Delegates and the senator representing adjacent Baltimore City and County districts told the Environment and Transportation Committee that House Bill 15-20 and Senate Bill 10-30 would clarify existing practice permitting a limited number of privately owned vehicles used by volunteers from the nonprofit Hotsawa of Baltimore to carry red or red-and-white lights while en route to emergency scenes.
Delegate Stein (introducing the House cross-file) said Hotsawa, a volunteer nonprofit that provides EMT and paramedic care in northwest Baltimore, has long operated privately owned vehicles equipped under MDOT permission and that the bills would codify and narrow that practice to cover officers of this organization. Senator Dalia Attar, sponsor on the Senate side, said MDOT had previously allowed many of the group's vehicles to operate with lights. She described the bill as ‘‘codifying current practice’’ and said both Baltimore City and Baltimore County delegations had letters of support and had voted unanimously in favor of the measure.
Committee members asked whether the provision could be misapplied to affiliated suborganizations and whether privately owned vehicles could legally operate as emergency vehicles (for example, exceeding speed limits). Sponsors said the bill, as amended, applies only to the named organization and that MDOT had been consulted; one sponsor said MDOT's earlier letter was written before the amendment that clarified the bill's limited scope. Committee members also asked how the change related to move-over laws and whether volunteers are authorized to use emergency driving privileges; sponsors said privately owned vehicles remain subject to traffic law and that volunteers are not exempted from statutory rules for emergency vehicles.
The record included letters of support from the delegations and the Baltimore City administration. No committee vote was recorded at the April 1 hearing.
