Posted: | June 24, 2021 02:13 PM |
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From: | Senator Mike Regan |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Driving Vehicle at Safe Speed Violations |
As you may recall, I was involved in a motorcycle accident earlier this year. While my body continues to heal very well, the legal ramifications of being involved in an accident have enlightened me about Pennsylvania’s laws as they pertain to an assumption of speed. Section 3361 of Title 75 (Vehicles), entitled “Driving vehicle at safe speed”, is subjective for both a driver and law enforcement, and in cases like mine, simply because an accident occurred, it was assumed that I was speeding, which was not the case. I was, in turn, charged with this very subjective violation. Additionally, Section 3366 (Charging speeding violations), specifically exempts violations of Section 3361 from having the alleged speed of a vehicle included on a traffic citation. Therefore, no attempt has to be made to definitively determine a driver involved in an accident was indeed speeding. To address this, I intend to introduce legislation to amend Section 3366 to strike the exemption of a Section 3361 violation, to explicitly state that a driver shall not be presumed to be speeding if an accident occurs, and to require a full investigation to determine a driver’s alleged speed. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation to protect drivers from being subjected to traffic violations on the basis of an assumption. |
Introduced as SB925