Committee hears bipartisan bill package to expand protections for vulnerable roadway users

Representatives Rogers and Wenzel introduced a bipartisan package, House Bills 4334 and 4335, to create statutory protections and penalties for injuries to pedestrians, bicyclists, people using wheelchairs and individuals operating defined vulnerable transportation devices.

The sponsor, Representative Rogers, told the committee the package “expands protections to pedestrians, bicyclists, individuals using a wheelchair, or an individual riding or operating a vulnerable transportation device,” and said prior versions passed each chamber last term but ran out of time.

The bills propose a statutory definition of a "vulnerable roadway device" as a device propelled by human power or by an electrical propulsion system with an average power of about 750 watts (roughly 1 horsepower) or a maximum speed of about 30 miles per hour. The…