CHARLESTON — The Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Committee approved a bill to increase the penalties for passing a school bus when its lights are flashing and students are getting on and off.
The committee also heard from a Division of Highways official on DOT’s problems keeping up with secondary road paving and maintenance.
The bus bill is SB 238. Passing a bus with flashing lights is a misdemeanor. It increases the range of fines for first offense from $250-$500 to $500-$1,000; second offense from $500-$1,000 to $1,000-$1,500; and the flat fine for third and subsequent offense from $1,000 to $2,000.
Driver’s license suspensions are also increased: first offense from 30 to 60 days; second offense from 90 to 180 days; third offense from 180 days to one year.
Violating the law and causing serious injury to anyone other than the driver is a felony. The fine range is raised form $500-$2,000 to $2,000-$5,000.
Causing death is also a felony. The fine range goes from $1,000-$3,000 to $5,000-$10,000.
Committee chair Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said the oil and gas traffic in his area has led to growth in the problem. “I’ve seen an uptick in the number of people passing school buses in a hurry to get somewhere. They just go right by.”
SB 238 passed unanimously with no debate and goes next to Senate Judiciary.
Division of Highways Deputy Commissioner Jilly Newman told members that the Roads to Prosperity program has given DOH a “strong running start” in getting roads built. “It’s not nearly enough.”
Additionally, that money doesn’t go directly to secondary road repairs and maintenance, though it’s intended to free up regular Road Fund dollars that would otherwise go to construction.
However, she said, the 2015 Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways report said that annual maintenance plus needed system expansion would require $1.13 billion annually above the Department of Transportation’s $1 billion-plus budget.
“We are behind,” she said about maintenance. “We are years and years behind. … We’re billions of dollars behind.”
About 24,000 miles of secondary roads need work, she said. Following the recent Performance Evaluation and Research Division report on Districts 4 and 5 — that showed 11 of the 13 counties aren’t spending their required amount on core maintenance of ditching, patching and snow removal — DOH is looking statewide at bringing its maintenance up to speed.
Newman was unable to provide specific answers or dollar figures to the various maintenance questions, so Sen. Glen Jeffries, D-Putnam, asked the chair to arrange another presentation on maintenance. The chair is looking into arranging that for Thursday’s meeting.
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