Senate approves substituted House Bill 10 after rejecting seat-belt amendment

The Utah Senate on Feb. 4, 1999 approved a substituted version of House Bill 10, a youth driving measure introduced in the House by Representative Bush, after rejecting a seat-belt amendment that would have made drivers younger than 18 responsible for ensuring all passengers were wearing seat belts.

Senator Montgomery, speaking as the Senate sponsor for the House bill, told colleagues the measure was similar in aim but different in detail from the Senate's own graduated-driver proposal. He outlined key differences: the House bill would allow applicants to obtain a regular license at age 16, requires 30 hours of driving experience with a supervising driver age 21 or older, and sets the practice-permit age earlier than the alternative Senate legislation. "Both bills require 30 of driving experience with their families, their parents, or another driver over age 21," Montgomery said in explanation of the bill's requirements.

Senator Howell offered an amendment to reinstate a seat-belt provision on page 2 that would add to existing statute (spoken in the hearing as "section 41 dash 6 1 48 dash 20") a requirement that a driver younger than 18 "provide that all persons in a motor vehicle being driven by a person younger than 18 years of age wear a properly adjusted and fastened seat belt system or child restraint device" and said, reading the amendment text, "A violation of this section is a class c misdemeanor." Howell said the language would align the bill with a provision the Senate had recently passed in its graduated-license measure.

Senator Montgomery and others resisted imposing the seat-belt amendment on the House bill, noting that the House had removed those provisions and passed the measure as presented (Montgomery said the House had approved the bill "72 to nothing"). Montgomery said he supported a broader seat-belt law under separate legislation and argued that if that law passed it would render the in-bill seat-belt language moot.

The Senate voted first on the motion to adopt Howell's amendment. The chair ruled the amendment failed after voice and division calls; a subsequent roll-call tally recorded 12 ayes and 15 no, and the motion failed. Senator Howell criticized the outcome from the floor, saying the body was showing "duplicity" and urging senators to consider the impact on children, and the chair interrupted to caution against imputing motives to members. Senator Montgomery responded that the House had already acted and that passage of a separate seat-belt law would address the issue.

Earlier in the debate the Senate approved a procedural substitution: legislative staff collated the amendments into a single first substitute bill and the Senate voted to substitute that version for the original House Bill 10. The motion to adopt the substitute passed on voice vote. When the Senate voted to read the first substitute for a third time, the clerk announced the substitute had received 27 ayes and 1 nay and would be read for third reading.

Senators who spoke in support emphasized the bill's goal of increasing supervised driving experience for teens and strengthening driver education. Opponents questioned whether two different bills covering similar ground should both advance and expressed concern about coordination between the House and Senate approaches.

The next procedural step announced on the floor was placement of the bill for third reading following the calendar. The session then proceeded to consider other House bills.

Votes and formal actions related to this debate were recorded on the Senate floor and are included in the meeting's actions list.