Please Don't Sit on the Sidelines.

We have just ONE week left in the 2014 legislative session to get our Vulnerable User bill passed.  The Senate has pulled its weight, now it's time for the House to get moving. 

This is the fifth year the Vulnerable User bill has been  proposed.  Wedon't want to hear that the House "ran out of time" yet again to vote on this important safety measure for cyclists and pedestrians.  And not having a VU bill, year after year, is hurting our bike friendly state ranking.   

Please email or call your State Representative and House Leadership--Reps. Brendan Sharkey and Joe Aresimowicz-- today to call the Vulnerable User bill, SB 336, for a vote.

We need safer streets this year.  From 2006 to 2012, more than 10,000 pedestrians and cyclists were injured or killed on Connecticut roads. 

• Click here for a starter message to personalize. Be sure to add your name and town at the end.
• Call or Email House Leadership:
• Rep. Brendan Sharkey, Speaker of the House (Hamden - Dist. 88) at 860-240-8500 or Brendan.Sharkey@cga.ct.gov
• Rep. Joe ARESIMOWICZ , Majority Leader (Berlin, Southington - Dist. 30),860-240-8489 or Joe.Aresimowicz@cga.ct.gov 
• Copy your state rep too. Find Your STATE Rep here. (Since this is a state bill, not a federal bill, contact just your state rep and not your US Senator or Congressperson. ) 
  
• Scroll down for background on the bill. 

Stay tuned!  Effective advocacy requires tenacity and dogged persistence, so it may be necessary to keep calling and emailing every day until the bill is voted on. 

Speaking up makes all the difference, and the more of us who do, the stronger our bike ped community is.  This is no time to sit on the sidelines!

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About the VU Bill, SB 336

• The need:  Careless drivers injure hundreds of people every year in Connecticut.  Federal and state data report that 10,793 pedestrians and cyclists were injured or killed in Connecticut from 2006 through 2012.   Unless there is evidence of drug or alcohol use, or a hit and run, careless drivers are rarely held accountable for their devastating, preventable, actions. 
• What would the bill do?  The VU bill would establish a fine of up to $1,000 for infliction of serious physical injury or death to a vulnerable user when a person fails to operate due care when using a motor vehicle.    The fine is not equivalent to the harm reckless drivers can cause, but it's a step in the right direction. 
• Who's a vulnerable user?  Vulnerable users are pedestrians, highway workers, wheelchair users, people riding or driving an animal, blind people and their service animals, and people who operate farm tractors, bicycles, scooters, roller or inline skates, and skateboards.   
• Progress to date:  The VU bill made it through the Transportation and Judiciary Committees and the Senate has passed it. The next step is for the HOUSE leadership to call the bill for a vote so the House can vote on it and pass it.  (CORRECTION:  We regret that we were given inaccurate information when we indicated that the bill was already on a consent calendar in the House. That is not the case as of April 30.)
• This is the fifth year the bill has been proposed.  It's time to pass it.