House Bill 3314 — which would create a new offense for anyone who inflicts serious injury or death upon a “vulnerable user” of a public way — passed the Senate Judiciary Committee today and is now one final vote away from becoming Oregon law.
The bill passed the House two weeks ago and after its recommendation from Committee today, it will move onto a full Senate vote. BTA lobbyist Scott Bricker and Portland bike lawyer Ray Thomas have worked hard to get the bill to this point.
If the Senate votes to pass the bill, it will go to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.
I dug up an article from back in November when I first wrote about this idea and found a quote from Thomas that sums up the spirit of the proposed law,
“…because bicyclists place themselves in harm’s way by insisting on riding on roadways, it is foreseeable that there will be occasional catastrophic injuries and fatalities. This “injury goes with the territory” attitude is paternalistic and anathema to bicyclists’ basic legal rights to a fair share of the roadway.”
I’m not sure when the bill is slated for the Senate vote, but I’ll keep you posted when it happens.
For more coverage of bike-related bills legislation, browse my archives.