State law requires motorists to stop when a school bus is letting off passengers, State Representative James Arciero hopes to expand that to waste disposal vehicles as well.
On Tuesday, Arciero testified on a bill he has sponsored to lower speed limits to 15 miles an hour near waste disposal or recycling vehicles on one lane roads.
In a prepared statement, Arciero compared the danger for waste disposal to that found in the fishing, logging, roofing and airline industries.
“While we may not think about it, those individuals engaged in this industry are continually at risk of being hit, both in their vehicles and when disembarking and returning to their trucks as they collect our trash,” he said. “We have all experienced the frustration of being behind vehicles that must stop and start when we are traveling, but I think we owe it to those individuals in the waste management and recycling fields to give them the patience and courteous to perform their important work, and especially to make sure that they make it home to their families.”
Currently, similar legislation is pending in Connecticut and New York and 10 other states have already passed comparable laws.
The law would not apply to private ways, highways or multiple lane roads.
Penalties for a first offense would be either a $500 fine or a year imprisonment, with subsequent offenses or offenses where someone is injured adding additional fines, imprisonment and drivers license suspsnsions.
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