Action Alert! Bike Walk Community (That's You!) Urged to Contact Senate Leadership re Vulnerable User Bill

We have just two weeks left in the 2014 legislative session to get our Vulnerable  User bill passed.  That means it's time for the bike ped community (that includes you!) to turn up the volume! 
 
This is the fifth year the Vulnerable User bill has been  proposed. We don't want to hear that our legislators "ran out of time" again this year to vote on this important safety measure for cyclists and pedestrians. 

Please email or call Senator Don Williams and Senator Martin Looney today to call the Vulnerable User bill, SB 336, for a vote. 

• Senator Don Williams, President Pro Tempore of the Senate (Brooklyn-Dist. 29): 860-240-8634, williams@senatedems.ct.gov
• Senator Martin Looney, Senate Majority Leader (New Haven - Dist. 11):  860-240-0375, looney@senatedems.ct.gov
• Copy your state senator

Click here for a starter message that you can personalize.  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 a difference, and the more of us who do, the better!  Thank you for working with us to make Connecticut a better place to bike and walk.
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About the VU Bill, SB 336

• The need:  Careless drivers injure hundreds of people every year in Connecticut.  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 has made it through the Transportation and Judiciary Committees. The next step is for the Senate to pass the bill.  But first, Senate leadership needs to call the bill for a vote in the Senate. Once the Senate passes the bill, it will move to the House where House leadership will need to call the bill so the House can vote on it. 
• This is  the fifth year the bill has been proposed.  It's time to pass it.