Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANN DONAHUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A Williamsburg state legislator declared Wednesday that he will ``work with every breath'' in his body to get enacted his bill that outlaws children under the age of 16 from riding unrestrained in the back of pickup trucks on highways.
This week, Gov. George Allen vetoed Del. George Grayson's bill for the second year in a row.
``We're going to urge that the veto be overridden,'' the Williamsburg Democrat said.
An override requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of the General Assembly, which reconvenes April 5 to consider bills that Allen vetoed. An override on Grayson's bill would be assured if legislators remain faithful to their original vote: it originally passed the House 71-27 and the Senate 27-11.
Allen argued that the pickup bill cannot be immediately justified as safety legislation.
``As I stated last year,'' Allen said in his veto message, ``my concerns regarding this legislation relate principally to the hardship that it will impose on people who have no practical means of transporting their families except by pickup truck.''
Allen also warned of excessive government intervention in the lives of the people. He opposed the implementation of the seatbelt law when he was in the state legislature.
``In doing so, we must be mindful that people inevitably exercise less personal responsibility when a paternalistic government repeatedly intervenes to protect them from dangers that common sense should tell them to guard against on their own,'' Allen said.
Grayson and other supporters said they were disappointed by Allen's reluctance to support the measure.
``He has elevated ideological politics over the safety of Virginia children,'' Grayson said.
``It's been documented far too many times of the tragedy caused by children thrown out of the back of pickup trucks,'' said Randy Green, director of public affairs for the Virginia arm of American Automobile Association.
Grayson's bill was endorsed by many regional AAAs, as well as 100 other organizations, including the Virginia Nurses Association and more than 20 PTAs.
One supporter of Grayson's bill was New Kent County High School student Ronald Rose. After signing a petition asking Allen to consider the bill, Rose was killed March 12 when he was thrown from the bed of a pickup when it was broadsided.
From 1988 to 1992, 40 people were killed in Virginia when they were thrown from the beds of trucks. According to Grayson, 16 were children.
``One of them was mine,'' said Edna Cofer of Smithfield. ``It makes me mad. I wonder when Virginia will get on the ball.''
Thomas Cofer was a 15-year-old high school junior when he was killed on Nov. 30, 1989. He fell out of the back of a pickup truck going less than 20 mph as it left his school parking lot.
``I don't understand this man who has been elected governor,'' Cofer said. ``Maybe when [Allen's] children are teens, he'll wake up.''
The fight for laws that restrict riding in the back of pickups has been going on for over a decade. In 1980, the National Highway Transportation Board sent letters to the governors of each state asking them to restrict passengers in the beds of trucks.
As of August 1994, only eight states had prohibited passengers from riding in the beds of pickups.
Grayson's interest in the issue began when Dr. Maurice Murphy of Williamsburg Community Hospital told him about one of his patients.
Murphy, a specialist in emergency medicine, contacted Grayson about the need for such a bill after he treated a 9-year-old boy in July 1993 who had been bounced out of the back of a pickup.
The boy was asleep in the bed of the truck as his mother drove back from Virginia Beach on Interstate 64. When the mother arrived at her home in Mecklenberg County, she discovered the boy was missing.
He was found by a tractor-trailer driver draped over a guardrail.
Murphy says the boy still suffers emotional trauma and walks with a limp.
``Each of us has a responsibility to protect our children, our neighbor's children and society in general,'' Murphy said.
Murphy said that two-thirds of people that are bounced out of the beds of trucks are not thrown from the vehicles as a result of a collision. Most people fall when they move to change position or when the truck hits a bump.
There is a high rate of head and spinal cord injuries from such accidents, Murphy said.
Injuries that require extensive hospitalization usually force the patient to use all of his or her insurance benefits. These people become reliant on the state, and can cost up to $200,000 a year, according to Murphy.
Keywords:
GERENARL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB