Today's biker ezine issue is packed with legislative information but fear not some fun event coverage will return early next week. Apparently sport bikes are back in the sights of federal agencies and insurance lobbyists. ~FF
1) SC Legislative Opportunities and Challenges from a Biker’s Perspective
2) The New Motorcycles: Bigger, Faster, Deadlier Trend
3) Republicans choose candidates in special elections
4) Sanford supports suit to abolish budget board
5) Election races set in Lexington County
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1) SC Legislative Opportunities and Challenges from a Biker’s Perspective
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FF Note: Visit the following URL for active links to all the important bills listed in the article.
http://www.fastfreds.com/articles/20070919legislativereport.html
SC Legislative Opportunities and Challenges
from a Biker's Perspective
Written by FastFred Ruddock, September 19, 2007
We are still looking forward to the second half of the current South Carolina Legislative Session. Opportunities and challenges await the bikers of South Carolina in the second half. Like many football games the second half can make all the difference. We need to stay focused while executing our best plays and watchful of the opposing team's best plays and special teams. Please use the two lists below to be come familiar with our plays and their plays before the big game.
A glaring problem is lack of funding for South Carolina's Rider Education Program. Rather than a special tax for bikers I suggest we work our legislature and others for grants to cover the expense. Cage drivers pay no special tax for driver programs offered throughout the state and even in most if not all high schools; bikers should be treated no different.
Additionally we would be wise to watch the federal efforts underway to bring back federal mandates for all rider helmet laws. It would be prudent to consider supporting the MRF and joining the MRF's email alert list. We can overcome our obstacles provided we all work together.
Handicap License Plates for motorcycles have long been available in SC (See photo at http://www.fastfreds.com/articles/20070919legislativereport.html).
Bills friendly to biker rights:
S605 a bill to allow for vertically mounted license plates for motorcycles. Sponsored by Grooms and currently in the Transportation Committee.
S732 a bill to amend current gambling laws to allow non-profit organizations to use various games like poker and dice for the purpose of fundraising. This bill is currently still stuck in a senate subcommittee and sponsored by McConnell. H3201 is a similar bill in the House but lacks the important protections to be granted by S732 to organizations such as ABATE.
S111 Reb’s bill to allow motorcyclists to treat defective traffic signals as stop signs. This is the second legislative session for this bill. Much as we would all like to pass this bill is currently an excellent tool to address defective traffic signals throughout South Carolina. This bill is currently stuck in a senate subcommittee and sponsored by Leventis and Knotts. North Carolina and Tennessee have passed similar bills.
S272 is a bill to instruct the Department of Transportation to design and erect along the state's highways traffic signs that promote motorcycle safety at locations where motorcycle fatalities have occurred within three years before the erection of the sign. This bill is on life support and is currently unlikely to pass because the lone sponsor has died.
H4145 is a bill to provide currently available special license plates for motorcycles in addition to just cages. Currently in the Education and Public Works Committee and sponsored by Brown, Alexander, and Battle
S493 is a bill that provides the Department of Motor Vehicles may issue Military Veterans Motorcycle special license plates to United States Armed Forces Veterans who own motorcycles registered in their names. The requirements for production and distribution of the plate are those set forth in Section 56-3-8100. The veteran owning the motorcycle must also present to the department a copy of his DD214. This bill has already passed both the house and senate and is now currently listed in conference committee.
S812 All-Terrain Vehicle Safety Act is a bill to provide reasonable ATV safety while respecting parental and property rights. Currently resides in the Transportation Committee and sponsored by Grooms, Campsen, Verdin, and Bryant.
S122 is a bill that provides a person driving a motor vehicle which is involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident must submit to a chemical test of his breath for the purpose of determining the presence of alcohol if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is under the influence of alcohol to the extent the person's faculties to drive are materially and appreciably impaired. Currently in a Transportation Subcommittee and sponsored by Martin, Ryberg, Richardson, Vaughn, Mescher, Knotts, Cleary, and Fair
Bills unfriendly to biker rights:
S3092 is a bill to allow for the use of cameras at intersections and other locations for traffic enforcement. A similar law in Virginia greatly increased rear-end accidents and was repealed as a direct result. Motorcyclists are placed at great hazard to life and limb by rear-end accidents. Currently stuck in Judiciary Committee and sponsored by Hamilton.
S714 is a bill that may encumber ABATE with more red tape and fees; for example: "A political awareness organization which receives or expends more than two thousand five hundred dollars in the aggregate during a calendar year, within fifteen days of incorporation, shall register with the State Ethics Commission as provided in this section. Each political awareness organization registering shall pay a fee of one hundred dollars."
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2) The New Motorcycles: Bigger, Faster, Deadlier Trend
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119006164438830162.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The New Motorcycles: Bigger, Faster, Deadlier Trend Toward Outsize Power And Lighter Weight Coincides With Increase in Fatalities
By JONATHAN WELSH
Bigger, faster, more-powerful machines are helping to make 2007 the deadliest year yet for motorcycle riders, say safety officials and a new insurance-industry study.
In the past few years a horsepower battle in the cycle industry has produced bikes that have the power of a car but often weigh less than ever. Sophisticated suspension and braking systems and other electronics make them easy for inexperienced riders to handle -- up to a point. But the bikes' potential speed and violent acceleration can quickly overwhelm all but the most skilled riders.
These high-performance machines, often called "superbikes" or "supersports," accounted for less than 10% of motorcycle registrations in 2005 but accounted for more than 25% of rider fatalities, according to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analyzed in a study released last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The total number of rider deaths has more than doubled since 1997. At the current rate, some safety experts say, fatalities in 2007 could surpass the previous peak of 4,955 set in 1980.
Superbike riders suffer much higher death rates than riders of other kinds of bikes. And while superbikes still aren't as popular as the larger, more laid-back cruiser-style bikes made by Harley-Davidson Motor Co., such bikes have been one of the fastest-growing segments of the industry. They represented 9% of the market in 2005, compared with 47% for cruisers. But superbike registrations jumped 83% between 2000 and 2005.
In addition to more-powerful machines, an influx of inexperienced riders is also helping to drive accident rates higher. And as more middle-age consumers return to motorcycling -- often after not having ridden for 20 years or more -- more older riders are being killed in crashes. Another contributing factor: a trend toward more-liberal helmet laws.
"These guys start riding again in their 50s and don't realize that they aren't the same physical specimens they were in their 20s," says David Livingston, director of the New Jersey Trauma Center at University Hospital in Newark, N.J., who has recently seen an increase in motorcycle-related injuries. "During June, July and August, about one in four patients hurt in traffic accidents have been motorcycle riders," he says.
Motorcycles, much like cars, have gradually become more powerful and nimble over time. But the more-rapid run-up in engine size and performance has occurred in only the past few years, as overall sales of motorcycles have boomed. New construction techniques and the widening availability of lightweight materials like carbon fiber and titanium "have made it easier to reduce weight and increase power cost-effectively," says Ted Miller, director of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, a research group. "The stoked sport bike," he says, is a fairly new development.
Bike makers across the industry are conspicuously boosting power. Italian manufacturer Ducati Motor Holding earlier this year began selling the 1098, a superbike with 160 horsepower -- a big jump from the 112 horsepower the company's racy 996 model put out 10 years ago. The bike has about as much power as a Honda Accord EX sedan. BMW AG's motorcycle unit had a reputation for building sedate bikes with less than 100 horsepower until it rolled out the 167-horsepower K1200S about three years ago. Even Harley-Davidson, long known for its slow cruising and touring models, recently released the Night Rod Special, a fast, low-slung bike with a 125-horsepower engine developed with sports-car maker Porsche AG.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s -- the last time motorcycle fatalities were this high -- the hottest bikes included machines like Kawasaki Motors Corp.'s Z1000. A fearsome bike at the time, its 90-or-so horsepower and total weight approaching 600 pounds seem benign compared with the nearly 200 horsepower generated by the company's new ZX-14 or rival bike maker Suzuki Motor Corp.'s GSX-R1000.
The Suzuki weighs barely 400 pounds with a full fuel tank, and can accelerate to 60 mph in about 2.5 seconds. It even comes with a switch so the rider can select low, medium or high power settings. Other bikes have adopted electronically controlled brakes, transmissions and traction control to keep the rear wheel from spinning out of control under acceleration.
Many supersport bikes are actually built for racing. In popular racing events like the American Motorcyclist Association superbike series, riders use bikes that are modified versions of those available to the public at dealerships. In order to compete in the races, cycle manufacturers have to build hundreds of the bikes for sale to consumers.
The process, called "homologation," is meant to guarantee that the bikes found on the track are roughly the same as those widely available to the public. The bikes sold this way are sometimes touted as "race replicas" or "homologation specials."
Although a tripling of motorcycle sales over the past decade accounts for some of the rising death rate, fatal motorcycle accidents have also risen proportionally.
Over the time period of the IIHS study, from 2000 to 2005, the death rate for motorcyclists rose to 7.5 deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles from 7.1. In the same period, the percentage of motorcycle deaths among all highway fatalities rose to 10% from 7%. Superbike riders had a death rate of 22.5 for every 10,000 registered motorcycles.
In 2005, riders 40 or older accounted for 47% of motorcycle fatalities, compared with 24% 10 years earlier. In the same period, the fatality percentage for riders younger than 30 years of age fell to 32% from 41%. Safety officials attribute this in part to a tendency of "returning" riders to overestimate their ability to handle the latest powerful bikes.
"You have a lot of people saying, 'I'm in my 40s and I want to start riding motorcycles again,'" says Daniel Lonsdorf, director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Transportation Safety. "But these aren't the same motorcycles they remember from 20 years ago."
Write to Jonathan Welsh at jonathan.welsh@wsj.com
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3) Republicans choose candidates in special elections
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/177587.html
Republicans choose candidates in special elections
AIKEN, S.C. -- Attorney Shane Massey and insurance and real estate agent Bill Hixon appear to have made it to a run-off for the Republican nomination for a state Senate seat in the western part of the state.
Massey received about 39 percent of the votes Tuesday and Hixon got about 32 percent of the vote in Senate District 25, which covers Aiken, Saluda, McCormick and Edgefield counties.
The winner of the Oct. 2 runoff will take on Democratic state Rep. Bill Clyburn on Nov. 6 to determine who wins the seat vacated by Democrat Tommy Moore.
In Beaufort, Republican Shannon Erickson appears to be the next representative in District 124.
Erickson, a day care owner, received 54 percent of the vote Tuesday in the GOP primary, compared to 46 percent for Randy Bates. Bates had spent the past six years assisting Catherine Ceips.
The Beaufort County seat came open when Ceips successfully ran for the state Senate earlier this year.
No Democrats or other candidates have filed for the seat, meaning Erickson will likely serve the rest of Ceips' term.
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4) Sanford supports suit to abolish budget board
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http://www.thestate.com/local/story/176560.html
Sanford supports suit to abolish budget board
Gov. Mark Sanford said Monday he agrees with a lawsuit that seeks to disband the State Budget and Control Board.
Sanford, who was named as a defendant in the suit by Change SC Now, submitted a response to the suit agreeing with its claim the board is unconstitutional.
In a State House news conference, Sanford said the board undermines the separation of government powers and contributes to inefficiencies in government.
The S.C. Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will hear the case.
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5) Election races set in Lexington County
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/177554.html
Election races set in Lexington County
Contests are scattered in Nov. 6 elections in six Lexington County communities.
The deadline for candidates to file was Tuesday in most communities. Here’s a rundown of who’s running:
Batesburg-Leesville: District 6 incumbent Joe Barr faces Chip Spradley and Carmen Hefner. Town Council incumbents Todd O’Dell in District 2, Charles Simpkins in District 4 and David Williams in District 8 are unopposed.
Chapin: Town Council incumbents Vivian ‘Bibi” Atkins and Kay Hollis are unopposed.
Irmo: Councilman Barry A. Walker Sr. is challenging incumbent Mayor John Gibbons. For Town Council, incumbents Kathy Condom and Harvey Hoots face Kelly Busch and Sarah Watson.
Pelion: Town Council incumbents Steven Neese and newcomer Effie Bailey are unopposed. Incumbent Mike Mascio retired.
Pine Ridge: Incumbents Daniel Davis and Vincent Echerer are unopposed.
Summit: Mayor Rosalyn Reeder is unopposed. Incumbent Mike Hartley is the sole Town Council candidate, so another will be elected by write-in to replace retiring incumbent Ed Burkett.
— Tim Flach
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